Clinton Exhorts Congress to Help Balance the Budget

President Clinton urged congressional Republicans to join with him to “finish this job” of fashioning a plan to balance the federal budget in seven years.

In his weekly radio address, the president said that “the ingredients for a balanced budget are clearly at hand. All we have to do is sit down together and assemble a final agreement based on the things we already agree on.”

With the November elections solidly in mind, Clinton was alternately tough-talking and conciliatory as he directed a portion of his remarks to the Republican majority in Congress.

“I know some people in your party are urging you to reject bipartisan negotiation in favor of more partisan confrontation,” he said. “That would be a terrible mistake. . . .

“If it is your political strategy to concoct a budget that you hope I will not sign, you ought to think again. If you torpedo these negotiations today after so much progress has been made on a balanced budget, simply to create a campaign issue for later, the American people will see through that with their eyes closed.”

Clinton’s address aired one day after he signed a $160-billion appropriations bill for the remaining five months of the 1996 fiscal year, ending a rancorous 16-month impasse that saw two partial shutdowns of the government.

Clinton said he and congressional Republicans are “within inches” of agreement on a long-range balanced budget “and nothing--not politics, not partisanship, not presidential campaigns--nothing should be allowed to stop us.”

“The only way for us to move forward is to do it together,” he said in conclusion.

The Republican response, taped before Clinton’s remarks aired, did not address the budget issue.

Instead, Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa used the opportunity to accuse Clinton of coddling criminals, saying the Justice Department “has actually frustrated efforts to enforce the death penalty.”

Grassley also previewed a so-called character theme that Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, Clinton’s presumed Republican opponent in this fall’s election, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) are expected to air on Monday: Drug use has increased under Clinton’s watch.

“In the absence of moral leadership,” Grassley said, “drug use among America’s youth is up dramatically. In fact, there’s been a 52% increase in drug use by teenagers since Bill Clinton took office.”

Despite Clinton’s comments, the likelihood of an election year agreement on a balanced budget is slim.

Dole and Gingrich said last week that Republicans plan to write their own budget before considering renewed talks with Clinton.

The budget committees in both chambers are expected to begin developing their budget blueprints for fiscal 1997, which begins Oct. 1, as early as this week. And some Republicans have said the documents are unlikely to depart dramatically from those the GOP proposed last year.