Budget Talks Accepted After Pointed Accusations : Government: Amid off-again, on-again negotiations, president decries ‘radical fringe’ in House. Clinton is ‘standing in the way,’ Archer says.

After a day of unusually pointed charges and countercharges, the White House and Republican leaders agreed late Wednesday to resume their stormy talks over balancing the federal budget and ending a partial government shutdown.

Asked at one point in the turbulent day what would come next, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) replied: “Beats me. It’s all very confusing.”

Later, Republicans announced that negotiations would resume today. “It’s my view we just ought to get on with it,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said. “We know what we have to do. And if we all want the same thing, which is a balanced budget--it’s what Newt and I want; the president says he wants it--we think we can do it fairly quickly.”

Stung by White House complaints that the shutdown would cause a delay in veterans’ benefits, House members were expected late Wednesday night to approve a bill to fund those benefits through the end of 1996. But the Senate was not expected to take up the bill Wednesday night.

The fragile truce capped a roller-coaster 24 hours in which stalled negotiations appeared to be rescued, only to break down early Wednesday--before the last-minute decision to try again. The White House and Republicans remain divided over spending plans for Medicare and Medicaid, the size of a tax cut, tax benefits for the working poor and other issues.

Heated partisan differences characterized much of the day, as President Clinton condemned a “radical fringe” of House Republicans who, he said, are “determined to keep the government closed unless they get their way.” Conservative House Republicans, he said, had torpedoed an agreement by Gingrich and Dole to end the shutdown Wednesday.

Republicans, meanwhile, fought back, disputing Clinton’s interpretation of his talks with Dole and Gingrich and challenging the administration to put forth a plan that would eliminate the deficit in seven years and would pass muster with the Congressional Budget Office.

“We are now at the point where the only person standing in the way of real change and a real balanced budget today is President Clinton,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer (R-Texas).

House Republicans agreed once again to link presentation of such a plan with their willingness to approve the temporary spending legislation that would end the partial shutdown. About 260,000 federal employees in nine Cabinet agencies have been furloughed because of the lack of a short-term spending bill.

In a bid to answer GOP criticisms over Democratic budget proposals, Senate Democrats on Wednesday offered an alternative budget that would achieve balance by cutting spending more deeply than the White House plan and offering a smaller tax cut.

Throughout the day, a question for all parties was whether Gingrich retained control of House Republicans and indeed would be able to deliver on a deal with the White House and Senate.

Clinton hammered at this theme, maintaining that Gingrich and Dole had agreed to pass legislation that would reopen the closed agencies but that rebellious conservatives had forced the House speaker to back off.

Clinton went out of his way to emphasize his accord with Dole and Gingrich. He said he had talked to Dole twice Wednesday to overcome this latest snag. He said he was not accusing Gingrich of breaking faith with their agreement.

According to the White House version of events, White House aides were alarmed to see House Republicans denouncing them from the floor of the House on Wednesday morning.

Then, in a morning visit to Capitol Hill to continue preliminary talks, White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta was told by Gingrich that some members had rejected the notion of a temporary spending bill until a full deal has been brokered.

Gingrich told Panetta that “his hands were tied and he could not abide by the agreement,” White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said.

But it was not clear that Gingrich had explicitly told the White House he was unwilling to continue conversations on the budget.

McCurry said that, although Clinton continues to talk with the GOP leadership, the Republican officials “are going to have to do more work on their side” to bring their members in line.

However, Gingrich disputed Clinton’s version of events and denied that he had agreed to a firm deal.

In moving away from negotiations, Republican freshmen seized on comments made Tuesday by Vice President Al Gore that they said raised questions about the administration’s good faith in bargaining. The dispute centered on the White House commitment to rely on CBO forecasting to assess whether a budget plan reaches balance, a condition insisted on by Republicans.

Although Gingrich said the White House had agreed to such a condition, Gore said the speaker had made a “slight misstatement.”

Freshman Rep. Ed Bryant (R-Tenn.), called Gore’s comments “simply incredible.”

Throughout the day, the administration pressured Republicans to resume funding for the government, documenting some of the personal costs that would soon arise from the lack of funding.

McCurry said 3.3 million veterans and survivors will receive their Jan. 1 benefits checks late unless a stopgap spending bill is passed by today. And Friday is the deadline to fund Aid to Families With Dependent Children welfare grants.

“That would affect 4.7 million families, a total of 13 million recipients who would not be in a position to receive necessary income support,” he said.