New Talks Set on Reaching Budget Deal

President Clinton, detecting “new and hopeful signs” that a bipartisan budget-balancing agreement is within reach, on Tuesday invited congressional leaders to the White House today to launch stepped-up negotiations.

The Republican chairmen of the congressional budget committees, Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico and Rep. John R. Kasich of Ohio, promptly accepted the invitation, as did two top Democratic budget writers, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey and Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina. A meeting is scheduled for shortly before Clinton is to depart for a summit with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin in Helsinki, Finland.

At a news conference, Clinton cited recent comments by Republican leaders indicating a new willingness to compromise on tax cuts that have been a cornerstone of the GOP agenda and accounting assumptions that have been big obstacles to a budget deal.

“We have to seize this opportunity to pass a bipartisan agreement to balance the budget,” the president said. “There are now some new and hopeful signs that we are in a position to do that.”

The most significant turn in the budget situation occurred Monday, when House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), in comments to reporters, said that he might be willing to postpone tax cuts until after Congress acted on spending cuts needed to balance the budget. That marked a surprising departure from long-standing GOP strategy of insisting that tax cuts--including credits for families with children and capital gains tax breaks--be an integral part of any budget-balancing scheme.

But while Clinton said he is encouraged by signs of GOP flexibility--especially Gingrich’s comments--those same developments drew heavy fire from within the Republicans’ own ranks. It has even fueled resurgent GOP rumblings of discontent with Gingrich, whose standing was battered by his reprimand on ethics charges earlier this year.

In a closed meeting of House leaders Tuesday, described as “contentious” by one Republican who attended, Gingrich refused to back down from his comments. That put him at odds with staunch tax-cut advocates such as House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer, both of Texas.

Among rank-and-file Republicans in the House, some members are so upset with Gingrich that they are talking of pushing a vote of no-confidence in his leadership, according to an aide to one member who has discussed the idea.

The speaker, for his part, welcomed Clinton’s new gesture. “I’m encouraged . . . by the movement on the White House’s part toward reopening the budget negotiations,” Gingrich said. “I hope the president’s words indicated that the administration is now ready to move beyond partisan politics” on the issue.

Before the latest conciliatory moves, efforts to craft a bipartisan budget seemed to have run aground on the shoals of partisan bickering. Two big bones of contention have been Republicans’ demand for tax cuts deeper than Clinton has proposed and their insistence on using the more conservative economic assumptions of the Congressional Budget Office that, the White House thinks, overstate the magnitude of the deficit problem.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) indicated Monday he might be willing to compromise on the CBO’s accounting assumptions--a change that could bring the White House and Republican bargaining positions closer together.

In addition to inviting budget leaders to the White House for a meeting today, Clinton said he was instructing his budget advisors to continue meeting with House and Senate leaders over the two-week congressional recess, which begins Friday, and to report back to him on “the progress they have made and the best means for reaching the bipartisan agreement we all seek.”

Some GOP leaders sought to obscure the divisions within their ranks, saying they all were unified on their commitment to tax cuts but differed only on tactics.

“In the end, we’re going to be saying the same thing,” said Lott.