Clinton Denounces GOP Welfare Bill : Reform: The President challenges Congress to come up with a compromise on House legislation by July 4. He also marks out the political line on several other issues.

President Clinton, trying to regain the political initiative while Congress is on vacation, denounced the House Republican welfare reform bill Tuesday as “too weak on work and too tough on children” and challenged Congress to negotiate a bipartisan compromise by July 4.

In a rare evening news conference, Clinton declared: “It’s wrong to cut children off just because their mothers are minors. After all, a child is a child. . . . Surely we should not punish children for the mistakes of their parents.”

The House bill, which passed last month, would deny cash benefits to unwed mothers younger than 18 and prohibit states from increasing benefits for mothers who have more babies.

Instead, Clinton said he wants a welfare reform bill similar to the one he proposed last year, which would impose time limits and work requirements but also increase federal funding for welfare recipients’ job training.

“Welfare reform is surely an example where all the people ought to be able to get together in Congress,” he said.

On welfare, but also on economics, crime and foreign policy the President marked out the political line he will take in the months ahead with the Republican majority in Congress.

Using sound-bite sentences and phrases he has been rehearsing in a series of recent speeches around the country, Clinton sought to portray himself as a champion of moderate, common-sense solutions to the nation’s problems. And, mindful of public frustration over gridlock, he repeatedly declared himself ready to work with the GOP if it does not go to what he considers extremes.

“I was not elected to produce a pile of vetoes,” Clinton said, “and the Congress was not elected to produce a pile of political issues for the next election.”

In only the fourth prime-time news conference of his term, Clinton also reeled off what an aide called his “must-do list” for the second 100 days of the Republican-led Congress: tax cuts linked to grants for college tuition, moderate cuts in federal spending and preservation of the ban on assault-style weapons.

He addressed a wide range of other issues, as well, including:

* Trade with Japan: Clinton sounded a hawkish note, reflecting his Administration’s belief that the Japanese have been stalling for years in opening their markets to foreign automobiles and auto parts. “We have strong differences” with the Japanese, Clinton said, in talks that ended another inconclusive phase in Washington on Tuesday.

* Reelection prospects: Clinton gave a somewhat hesitant reply to a question about why voters should give him a second term. “I believe I should be reelected because I have done what I have said I would do, because we have got good results, because the policies that I now advocate--most importantly--will address the outstanding problems of the country. . . . This country is in a stronger position today than it was two years ago,” he said.

* Surgeon general nominee: Clinton said emphatically that he is “going to the mat” to fight for the confirmation of Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr., who has become a target of conservative Republicans in part because he performed several dozen abortions during his career as an obstetrician-gynecologist.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, on Tuesday reiterated his opposition to Foster’s confirmation and said he might employ parliamentary maneuvers to prevent the nomination from coming to the Senate floor for a vote. “I think he knows it will be difficult,” Clinton said, noting that Foster has been warned both publicly and privately that presidential politics has become a critical factor in his nomination.

* Weak dollar: The President was careful in his comments about the beleaguered dollar, declaring that he supports a stronger dollar but maintaining that nations have only limited abilities to protect the value of their currencies, especially in the short run.

* Iran’s nuclear program: Clinton said that he will continue to press both Russia and China not to sell nuclear reactors to Iran. “I cannot explain why Russia would do it,” he said. “I don’t think it’s right and I don’t think it’s in their interest.” He said, however, that he knows what their arguments are likely to be: that they already had contracted for a deal and that the reactors are of such low level that they could not contribute significantly to a nuclear weapons program.

* Atomic bombing of Japan: Clinton said that he will not apologize to Japan for President Harry S. Truman’s decision to drop two atomic bombs on the country during World War II, a decision “that we did not believe then and I do not believe now was a mistake.” But, he said, U.S.-Japanese friendship will go on despite the historical controversy over the bomb during this 50th anniversary year.

* Affirmative action: Clinton said that “the government should never give someone who is unqualified anything over someone who is qualified” but deferred a more detailed response until after his Administration completes its review of federal affirmative-action programs, which he said “won’t be long.” He suggested that the frustration of white men with affirmative action has its roots in economic problems that his Administration is trying to ameliorate through policies aimed at “better jobs, more jobs, a higher minimum wage, a tax cut for workers with modest incomes.”

* Middle East peace: The President conceded that “we’re not on the edge of a breakthrough” in peace negotiations between Israel and Syria, but insisted that leaders of both countries “understand they don’t have unlimited time” and said that he is “more hopeful today than I was, let’s say, 45 days ago.”

* The Vietnam War: Clinton reiterated his previous assertion that former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara’s new book contending that the Vietnam War was a mistake “supports” Clinton’s own conclusion that “our policy was incorrect.” But he urged Americans to put that debate behind them. “I do not believe that the book should be used as yet another opportunity to divide the United States over that,” the President said. “We should learn from what happened, resolve not to repeat our mistakes, honor the service of Americans and go forward together.”

* Flat-tax proposal: Asked whether he would support a flat tax, a measure that would greatly simplify the nation’s bewildering tax code, Clinton expressed doubts, warning that such a tax might cause the deficit to explode and also be unfair. He cited research suggesting that a flat tax would increase taxes for Americans earning less than $200,000 a year, while lowering them for households--such as his own--that earn more than $200,000.

Overall, the President’s message to the nation reinforced themes he has sounded with increasing clarity over the last two months: that he is willing to cooperate with Congress on issues where the two parties can agree but is ready to denounce Republicans--and threaten to veto their bills--when he believes they have gone too far.

It is a message that White House political strategists say already has shown benefits for Clinton, as polls have found growing public dissatisfaction with the House GOP program. A Times Mirror poll released last week found the public evenly divided on the Republican program. For the first time since the election, a plurality of 48% said that they wanted Clinton to set the national agenda, while 36% wanted Congress to lead.

The President’s decision to spotlight welfare reform reflected poll findings that most of the public is uneasy with large parts of the GOP welfare bill.

The House bill would change welfare from a federal program with guaranteed benefits for anyone who qualifies to a program run by the states with lump-sum grants from the federal government. States would be given broad flexibility to design programs, but would be compelled to require all recipients to work after two years on welfare and to halt their benefits after five years.

The plan is estimated to save $69 billion over five years, largely by making most legal immigrants ineligible for an array of federal programs, tightening the rules for food stamps and denying cash support to hundreds of thousands of disabled children and others who receive supplemental security income.

The principal author of the House bill said that while Republicans are willing to make “some adjustments” in their proposal, they will not be as much as Clinton would like.

“He’s not going to get everything he wants,” said Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.). “He’s dealing with a Republican Congress.”

In a telephone interview from his district in West Palm Beach, Shaw said that the President is mistaken if he thinks he will be presented with a welfare bill that looks like the one he supported last year.

“It’s going to look much more like the (House) Republican bill,” Shaw said. “I’m prepared to make some adjustments to get the bill through,” he added, but predicted that 90% of the current House bill will be in the final version.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers John M. Broder, Janet Hook, Stanley Meisler, Jonathan Peterson, Art Pine, Paul Richter and James Risen.