Clinton Cites Social Security Consensus

President Clinton on Thursday hailed a bipartisan consensus to earmark 62% of a projected budget surplus for Social Security, a proposal so novel when he introduced it during his State of the Union address last month that many Republicans accused him of budgetary sleight of hand.

“There seems now to be broad agreement among leaders and rank-and-file members in both parties of Congress to set aside the lion’s share of the surplus to save Social Security,” Clinton told a partisan crowd of 2,000 at the Tucson Convention Center.

Clinton’s remarks followed the embrace of the proposal Wednesday by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). House and Senate GOP leaders, meeting early Thursday evening in Washington, agreed in principle to “put a lock” on 62% of all federal budget surpluses starting this year for Social Security.

But the bipartisan agreement on how much to earmark for keeping the retirement program solvent for the baby boom generation does little to mask policy disputes still ahead.

For one thing, Republicans and Democrats have not agreed on how to use the surplus funds. For another, they are still arguing about how much of the anticipated surplus of $4.47 trillion over 15 years to use for tax cuts.

Republicans want to use most of the remaining 38% of the surplus for tax cuts. And conservatives in particular feel strongly about pushing through large tax reductions. Many regard the pledge as a litmus test.

Before the speech, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said that Clinton would use the opportunity to “tweak” Republicans for their tax cut proposals. But he did not.

Instead, Clinton cited positive movement targeting tax relief to certain groups instead of offering an across-the-board approach, such as removing the so-called marriage penalty in the tax code.

“There is, I think, some movement toward reaching some consensus about the nature of tax cuts, that they ought to be targeted and benefit people that need it most,” Clinton said.

Republicans lost no time in responding to Clinton’s apparent olive branch. Hastert issued a statement saying he was pleased that Clinton “has started to come our way” toward tax relief.

But congressional Republicans are deeply skeptical of Clinton’s plan to use 15% of the expected surplus to bolster Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, which could be insolvent within 10 years.

“We don’t yet have that kind of agreement on setting aside some of the surplus for Medicare, and I think we should,” Clinton acknowledged.

House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) told reporters that Democrats would insist that Republicans agree to earmark funds for both Social Security and Medicare. If not, he said, Democrats will balk at compromise on long-range reform in the Social Security program.

“This is the threshold issue,” the Democratic leader told reporters in Washington. “If we can make this decision in a bipartisan way . . . then I think the stage is set to sit down and go through the other matters that have to be looked at to solve further problems” involving Social Security.

Tucson was the first stop on a six-day Western trip in which Clinton also will give a major foreign policy address in San Franciso, attend fund-raisers for Democrats in that city and Los Angeles and relax on a ski vacation with his family in Park City, Utah.

Basking in the relief that followed the end of his impeachment trial, Clinton received a warm welcome in Arizona. But a few dozen protesters standing near the convention center held signs about Juanita Broaddrick’s allegation of sexual assault by Clinton 21 years ago: “Clinton is a rapist,” “I believe Juanita,” “Did Juanita Broaddrick consent?” “We have morals in Tucson. Go back to D.C.”

Clinton did not respond to the signs--or to the jeers and slogans protesters shouted. Instead, talking about his plans for spending the projected surplus over the next 15 years, Clinton declared: “I know it would be a lot more popular to say, ‘We have got a surplus. It’s your money. I am just going to give it back to you.’ And then you could all cheer and I could go home. We’d go watch baseball or do something else.”

Then, Clinton did just that. Enjoying one of the rites of the season, he visited the Arizona Diamondbacks’ spring training facility at Tucson Electric Park and chatted with several pitchers including free agent signees Randy Johnson, Todd Stottlemyre and Greg Swindell.

Times staff writers Art Pine and Robert A. Rosenblatt in Washington contributed to this story.