GOP, in Response to Address, Calls for Reconciliation

Congressional Republicans, responding to President Clinton’s State of the Union address Tuesday, called for more bipartisan cooperation but served notice that they plan to push proposals on key issues that are starkly different from the administration’s.

In a televised response that followed Clinton’s speech, Reps. Jennifer Dunn of Washington and Steve Largent of Oklahoma, the designated GOP speakers, made no direct reference to the presidential impeachment trial now underway in the Senate. Dunn took note of the “disturbing and controversial times in our nation’s capital.” But she added: “No matter what the outcome of the president’s situation, life in America will go on. Our lives will continue to be filled with practical matters, not constitutional ones.”

Instead, the pair opted for low-key speeches aimed, in part, at softening the GOP’s image. Dunn, a divorcee, talked of being a single mother since her two sons were little. Largent said that before he ran for the House in 1994, he and his wife “were like most families--raising four kids, hustling from one school or sports event to another, our car littered by fast-food wrappers and french fries.”

Clearly, the GOP response and comments by Republican leaders earlier in the day sought to depict the party as focused on more than impeachment.

Partisan Wrangle Seen Inevitable

“Our point is that we have a lot of work to do and that we’re working,” Assistant Senate Majority Leader Don Nickles (R-Okla.) said at a morning news conference. “We hope that we’ll have the president’s cooperation and signature,” he added, “but we plan on doing it regardless.”

Congressional analysts said the five-part legislative agenda that GOP leaders outlined before Clinton’s address is sufficiently different from what the president proposed that a serious partisan wrangle seems all but inevitable--particularly over the question of a tax cut.

The two sides differ sharply over several issues--particularly how to use the $4 trillion surplus that the federal government is expected to run over the next 15 years. Clinton wants the money used almost entirely to bolster the Social Security system, while Republicans contend that can be accomplished even as large tax cuts are enacted.

They also are split over what kind of tax cuts to enact. While Clinton proposed a few modest “targeted” tax breaks aimed at specific groups--such as mothers who stay at home or persons who care for disabled parents or children--Republicans touted a plan for more sizable cuts affecting a broader swath of the public.

The GOP proposal would reduce tax rates across-the-board by 10%--well short of what President Reagan pushed through in 1981 but still sizable. The biggest tax benefits would go to taxpayers in higher-income brackets.

Dunn touted the plan as “the down payment on a simpler, fairer, flatter tax system.”

Republicans also revived their long-standing call for eliminating the so-called marriage penalty--the formula under which married couples pay more taxes filing jointly than they would if they had remained single--a hot-button GOP issue for several years.

The two sides also are divided over how to invest Social Security funds in the stock market in hope of a better return. Clinton wants the government to invest the money in the market, while Republicans want taxpayers to be able to set up their own accounts.

Although Republicans pledged to cooperate with the administration in crafting legislation to bolster the Social Security system, they insisted that Clinton put forward his own detailed plan first. They gave the president until March 1 to come up with specifics or see Congress craft its own proposal.

Finally, the two are split over defense spending. Republicans are pressing for a national missile defense system that Clinton so far has shied away from supporting enthusiastically. And the GOP appears to want to provide for a bigger increase in military spending than the president wants.

The GOP agenda included these additional items:

* A bid to revamp the federal aid program for elementary and secondary schools in an effort to reduce the amount of control that federal authorities will have over local programs. Clinton has proposed a plan that critics say would increase federal control over local schools.

* An increase in drug interdiction and enforcement, both at U.S. borders and inside the country. The measure also would toughen enforcement against methamphetamines, now increasingly used by young persons, and would provide tougher sentences for dealers of powder cocaine.

As has been the case in such start-of-session ventures, the GOP proposals were little more than outlines, devoid of specifics. House and Senate committees are expected to work out details on the measures over the next several months.

‘People’s Business Is Going Forward’

But Republicans portrayed their proposals as evidence that, despite the impeachment trial, congressional leaders are committed to passing legislation that addresses key domestic issues. “The people’s business is going forward,” Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) told reporters.

Largent, in his speech, stressed the need for the two parties to cooperate. “If we work together and walk together and if we have a Congress motivated not by the maintenance of power but principle, then I believe historians will tell our children’s children: ‘There walked a great people, a nation that preserved the wonderful promise that we call America.’ ”

Congressional strategists said the choice of Dunn and Largent to present the Republican response was a move by House leaders to heal some of the party’s internal wounds in the wake of the fight over the House leadership last November and to broaden the GOP’s appeal.

The two lawmakers unsuccessfully sought to unseat Rep. Dick Armey (R-Texas) as House majority leader in the aftermath of a disappointing GOP showing in the midterm elections. Largent, a conservative, has wide name recognition as a former professional football star. Dunn, who is more moderate, is seen as potentially attracting more women to GOP ranks.

Dunn and Largent were chosen to deliver the GOP response by Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.) during the brief period that he served as speaker-designate after former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s decision to give up the post. Livingston withdrew his name following revelations that he had had an affair.

The new speaker, Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), left the appointments intact.