Lott Urges Clinton to Accept Curbing Social Security Raises

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) urged President Clinton on Friday to embrace one of the most controversial ideas to save money in the federal budget: restraining cost-of-living increases in benefits such as Social Security.

“This is something the president is going to have to address at this point,” Lott told reporters.

In a separate appearance at a White House news conference, Clinton did not address any specific give-and-take on the budget talks. But he said he sees new hope for reaching a budget accord with the Republican-led Congress.

Clinton said the bipartisan cooperation that led to Senate approval of the chemical weapons treaty Thursday convinced him a balanced-budget accord is also attainable. Lott’s support for the treaty was considered key in securing the two-thirds majority needed for its approval.

A balanced budget “would be so good for our economy. It would keep interest rates down. It would keep job growth growing,” Clinton said.

White House officials have been negotiating with senior Republican and Democratic lawmakers to resolve deep differences over the size of tax cuts and spending cuts that should be adopted in a five-year balanced budget.

Lott said Republicans were continuing negotiations with the administration, but if no agreement were reached soon he would move a budget proposal being worked out with conservative Democrats.

Although the negotiators’ goal was to balance the budget by 2002, the White House and GOP were exchanging proposals in which each left a deficit that year exceeding $50 billion. That description came from people from both parties after the talks and who spoke only on condition of anonymity.

That gap was left because both sides envision closing it at the very end of their bargaining with items too politically explosive to discuss prematurely, such as altering the way the consumer price index is adjusted every year. That change, which would affect the benefits and tax brackets of millions of Americans, could narrow deficits through 2002 by billions of dollars.

In December, a congressional advisory panel concluded that the government currently overstates inflation by 1.1% per year. Lott has been searching for a way for the two sides to embrace a change in that formula and use the savings to help balance the budget.

Clinton backed away from endorsing the idea after hearing strenuous objections from labor, groups representing the elderly, and top Democrats such as House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.).