Clinton Predicts Accord on Budget : Legislation: But ‘our most fundamental values’ must be reflected in any spending plan, president says in radio talk. He urges end to federal shutdown.

President Clinton predicted Saturday that he and Republican lawmakers will find a way to balance the federal budget within seven years but insisted on an approach that “reflects our most fundamental values” and does not hurt “those who need and deserve our help.”

In his weekly radio address, the president called on Congress to reopen the federal government, which has been partially closed for eight days in the second shutdown since the 1996 fiscal year began on Oct. 1.

The time has come to “end the financial and emotional turmoil” inflicted upon about 280,000 furloughed federal workers and about 460,000 who are working but not receiving paychecks, he said.

“In the spirit of the holidays, we should do everything we can to put these people back to work and resume critical services the American people need and deserve,” Clinton said.

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Clinton and GOP leaders held their last pre-Christmas budget negotiating session at the White House on Friday, and they are not expected to meet again until at least next Friday. Staff discussions are expected to resume on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Negotiators have reached common ground on some issues but they remain divided over proposed tax cuts and spending reductions affecting Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs. The Republicans want deeper cuts in the growth of assistance programs, while Clinton is seeking more modest reductions. He has urged GOP leaders to shave their tax-cut proposals instead.

“We have to balance the budget in a way that reflects our most fundamental values: increasing opportunity, asking everyone to assume responsibility, strengthening our families and the economy, and recognizing the duty we have to each other--to our parents, our children, and those who need and deserve our help,” he said.

Offering a Republican response to the president’s address, Rep. Ron Lewis of Kentucky urged Clinton to “negotiate in good faith” to end the budget impasse, based on economic projections developed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Clinton has been reluctant to embrace the CBO calculations because they would require bigger spending cuts than the more optimistic estimates of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Working with Congress to develop a CBO-based balanced-budget plan is “our last, best chance to stop robbing our children,” Lewis said.

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“Congress and the president have the chance to present America’s children with a great Christmas gift--a balanced budget,” Lewis said. “Children don’t have a say in the matter, but they will be stuck with the debts run up by an out-of-touch federal government.”

Addressing the on-again, off-again budget discussions between the White House and Congress, Clinton said “our talks are making progress,” adding: “I am confident we can end this impasse and pass a seven-year balanced budget.”

The president noted that on Friday, Congress passed and he signed into law a stopgap funding measure to ensure that Jan. 1 benefit checks will go out on schedule to an estimated 3.3 million veterans and 13 million needy children and their mothers, despite the government shutdown.

“That’s a good start,” Clinton said. “I hope we can resume all services as we work together to balance the budget.”

Recapping his administration’s domestic and international achievements in 1995, Clinton said the country played an important role “as the world’s premier peacemaker,” citing, among other examples, progress in the Middle East and Bosnia.

Despite the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Middle East peace process has continued, he said. “Finally, it looks like Israel and Syria will sit together in the United States to seek a way to resolve their differences and live together peacefully,” he said.

The Bosnia peace accord forged in Dayton, Ohio, and the U.S. decision to send troops to Bosnia to help maintain the peace have “given the people of the former Yugoslavia a chance to rebuild their lives,” he said.

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He made note of Haiti, where “they will soon celebrate the very first peaceful transfer of power from one democratically elected president to another in the history of the country.”

Clinton also hailed the advent of peace in Northern Ireland, where he recently visited. “I saw thousands and thousands of children beginning to celebrate their second Christmas season of peace,” he said.

The president also cited signs of progress in the United States, where violent crime declined 5% last year while the murder rate fell 12%, the largest decline in 35 years.

Meanwhile, the White House announced that Clinton had signed legislation to toughen penalties for those convicted of child-sex offenses, particularly those involving the use of computers.

The new law would increase sentences to a range of 70 to 87 months from the present range of 57 to 71 months for individuals convicted of causing a child to engage in sexually explicit conduct before a camera. Sentences for those convicted of distributing visual depictions of such activities would jump to 24 to 30 months from the current 18 to 24 months.

The sentences would double if the transmission of child pornography took place via computer.

Penalties also would rise sharply for those convicted of transporting a minor in interstate or foreign commerce to engage in prostitution or other illegal sexual activity.