House Budget Chief Offers Divisive Plan

WASHINGTON — The chief House budget writer sought votes Wednesday for a $1.7-trillion spending plan for 1999 that would renew past Republican battles with President Clinton, cut food stamps and kill the departments of Commerce and Energy.

But the plan by the Budget Committee chairman, Rep. John R. Kasich (R-Ohio), was getting arms-length support from House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), and many GOP moderates and conservatives were unhappy. In a letter to Kasich, moderate leaders said they opposed the proposal, calling its cuts “neither desirable nor attainable.”

Conservatives, meanwhile, demanded deeper tax and spending reductions as the price for their support.

All that made changes likely before Kasich puts the plan before his committee for a vote next week.

Kasich and his supporters touted the plan as a way for Republicans to draw sharp contrasts with Clinton for this fall’s congressional elections, when House control will be at stake.

The measure calls for $100 billion in savings over five years beyond last summer’s budget-balancing agreement, mostly from domestic programs. Projected spending would be trimmed for Medicaid, welfare and other programs for the poor.

It would also eliminate the AmeriCorps national service program, a Clinton favorite, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Kasich would also roll back the so-called marriage penalty, the additional income tax many people pay when they marry. The proposal would cost $50 billion to $100 billion over five years, the documents say.

The congressional budget’s provisions serve as guidelines and can become law only if they are contained in separate bills considered later in the year.

Even so, Kasich’s package would put the House GOP on a collision course with Clinton, who would surely veto many of the proposals.

“We’re hopeful that even most Republicans will choose not to support a budget that cuts education and Medicaid, raises taxes on working Americans and sends 50,000 young people doing service in their communities home for the year,” said Linda Ricci, spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget.