Gingrich Sees Possible Veto Showdown With Clinton : Legislation: Speaker says any rejected bills would be attached to debt-ceiling act. Major battle between President, Congress could follow.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday he expects President Clinton to veto key pieces of legislation passed by the Republican-controlled Congress but that the measures then will be added to a crucial debt-ceiling act that allows the government to pay its bills.

“Then he’ll decide how big a crisis he wants,” Gingrich said in a television interview.

The Georgia Republican said he expects Clinton to try to veto the tax-cut bill, a revised crime bill, and bills to abolish the Housing and Urban Development and Energy departments and merge the Education and Labor departments.

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Such a veto battle would be the biggest confrontation yet between the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress over the GOP “contract with America” legislative agenda and could have extensive repercussions, particularly on the presidential campaign.

Clinton and aides have indicated that he would veto crime bill changes that eliminate federal assistance for 100,000 new police officers, repeal the assault weapon ban and cut some of the planned programs. Gingrich said the revisions would give the crime program “less gun control and more criminal control.”

Clinton also has indicated he will oppose a tax cut that does not include deficit reduction.

But the President would face a difficult predicament if the vetoed measures were attached to legislation adjusting the debt ceiling, because the government relies on the adjustable ceiling to raise funds to pay for its operations. Such a showdown could end the congressional session with an even bigger bang than it began on.

In Little Rock, Ark., where Clinton spent the weekend, a White House spokeswoman confirmed that he still intends to veto some parts of the House GOP program if they are also passed by the Senate.

“If both houses vote to reverse the assault weapons ban, he has said he will veto that,” Ginny Terzano said. “If the welfare bill passes the Senate in the same form as passed by the House, he would veto that.”

But Terzano said Clinton has not decided how he would respond if Congress sends him those measures as part of a debt-ceiling bill.

In other comments as Congress approaches its 100-day mark, Gingrich acknowledged that House Republicans have not ironed out differences over some controversial provisions in the $189-billion tax-cut proposal but predicted eventual House passage.

He dismissed as “almost entirely symbolism” the dispute over whether a $500-per-child tax credit should be extended to families with incomes up to $200,000 a year or limited to those earning no more than $95,000, as favored by some moderate Republicans.

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“I think there are some people who flinch at the idea that if you have a two-earner family and they actually earn over $95,000 that they’re parents too, and that their children deserve a break too,” Gingrich said on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley.”

Those who favor the lower cutoff “buy into the Washington . . . mentality that suddenly screams: ‘You can’t really let these people keep their own money,’ and we’re having an argument. I’m not sure we’ll get to a compromise. We may just bring the bill up and see what happens.”

“My guess is the House will vote for it.”

On changing the Medicaid program, Gingrich said he favors replacing the $88-billion program of medical care for the poor with federal block grants to the states. State agencies, he said, are “superior to Washington bureaucrats in how to manage the delivery of welfare-related health care.”

Asked if he would permit states to write their own rules on who is entitled to medical assistance, Gingrich said he expects that states would be allowed “a very broad framework within which to define how they want to provide it” but would be required to give people adequate health care. “If a state is deliberately stupid and destructive, you’re going to get congressional hearings, you’re going to get a revision of the law, and the states know that.”

Gingrich held firm with his support for a U.S. aid effort for Mexico, despite a new proposal by Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) to cut off further funds. Denying U.S. support in the Mexican financial crisis would be “a big mistake.”

Clinton “made the only decision that had any hope of working,” he said. “. . . Having Mexico collapse and having 5 to 15 million Mexicans decide to walk north could be catastrophic.”

But Gingrich said he is ready to confront the Administration on its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy meant to ease the ban on gays in the military.

In the wake of a federal judge’s decision that Clinton’s policy is unconstitutional, Gingrich said he expects Congress to act to restore the military ban on gay men and lesbians.

Assessing his performance during the congressional session’s first three months, Gingrich said he has to take some blame for his low showing in the polls, compared to the higher ratings given to the Republican program.

He said he has been too intense and too strong in presenting some of his plans and ideas.