White House Sets Out Budget ‘Principles’ : Legislation: Two-page list of priorities is sent to GOP congressional leaders, who had sought specific proposals before negotiations begin.

The White House sent Republican congressional leaders a two-page list of budget “principles” Friday and said it was “unreasonable and unproductive” to expect greater detail before negotiations on a seven-year budget plan begin.

Among the priorities listed in the letter from Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta were high-quality medical care for the elderly under Medicare, adequate funding for Medicaid and tax fairness.

The letter was sent to House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and the House and Senate budget committee chairmen in response to their request on Wednesday that President Clinton submit “specific legislative proposals on how you would accomplish [budget] balance in seven years.”

“We cannot begin to resolve our differences until we first know what they are,” the lawmakers wrote.

Under a temporary spending bill that ended a six-day partial government shutdown Monday, the two sides have until Dec. 15 to resolve their broader budget disagreement.

Clinton has promised to veto the GOP seven-year, balanced budget, which squeezes $270 billion in savings from Medicare and cuts taxes on families and businesses by $245 billion. Panetta said neither the President’s budget nor Congress’ plan would both balance the budget by the year 2002 and protect Clinton’s spending priorities.

“Each of us could take the position that we cannot begin talks until the other side shows in detail how it can meet all of the demands of the other,” he wrote. “But such a position is unreasonable and unproductive.”

Gingrich’s spokesman, Tony Blankley, said the Republican Congress has produced a “seven-year, line-item-by-line-item budget” and if Clinton disagrees “we would like to know where he disagrees and how he would modify it, not bromides and platitudes.”

Panetta said he listed the nine principles “so that there is clarity as to what some of our primary concerns are.”

In addition to Medicare, Medicaid and tax fairness, Panetta said the President sought to maintain real funding levels in education, sustain progress in environmental protection, provide adequate resources to move people from welfare to work, preserve the strength of America’s farms, provide enough military spending to meet the nation’s needs after the Cold War and continue providing veterans with the benefits to which they are entitled.

Blankley said: “At some point the President may want to let the public know what his specific proposal is. Or, maybe he thinks he can tap dance all the way to November.”