Clinton Vows to Protect Medicaid in Budget Battle

Making Medicaid the focal point of his budget strategy, President Clinton pledged Saturday to veto Republican budgets “again and again and again” until the health care program is protected.

“My seven-year balanced-budget plan trims Medicaid and keeps costs down. It cuts federal spending, lets states be more efficient, targets the money more wisely,” Clinton said in his weekly radio address, which was taped Friday and aired while he was flying to Arkansas for the weekend.

“But it doesn’t end the guarantee of health care for millions of Americans who depend upon it now,” he said. Republicans want to end the federal guarantee.

In the Republican radio response to the president, Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma and Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio said Clinton’s budget plan relies on higher taxes and excessive spending and does not achieve true balance.

“Despite what he promised, it seems the president just can’t deliver, can’t live with slowing the growth of Washington spending enough to honestly balance the budget,” Boehner said.