GOP Seeks Accords With Clinton

A year after they voted to impeach him, House Republicans are seeking compromises with President Clinton on a series of popular election-year bills designed to provide GOP incumbents with a list of “accomplishments” that they can use to win votes in November.

Dropping its long-standing opposition to raising the minimum wage, the GOP-controlled House is scheduled to take up a bill today that would boost the $5.15-an-hour minimum to $6.15 over the next three years and cut business taxes to help companies pay for it.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) already has rammed through bills to ease the marriage penalty--the quirk in the law that taxes many couples more heavily than if they filed as singles--and to repeal the limit on how much Social Security recipients may earn without losing benefits.

House leaders say that they also may seek accords with the administration on other measures--tax incentives for providing long-term care for elderly family members, a “patients’ bill of rights” and legislation to provide prescription drug benefits for senior citizens.

GOP Wants to Avoid Controversy

Marshall Wittmann, congressional analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that the push for closer cooperation does not reflect any sudden warm feelings between the two sides.

With uncertainty surrounding the November election, Republicans want to bolster their own political fortunes with some flashy legislative achievements--and avoid being blamed for another year of gridlock, which might cost them control of the House.

“The Republicans are in a conflict-avoidance mode,” Wittmann said. “They’ve been burned too much by the White House and they don’t want to get mired in any controversy.”

The mood is ripe for compromise at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue as well. Anxious to fashion a legacy--and deny Republicans the opportunity to use his vetoes as an issue--Clinton seems willing to share some of these victories with Republicans.

As a result, some analysts believe that the 106th Congress may end up accomplishing more than had been expected.

The two sides became similar strange bedfellows in 1996, after an earlier impasse shut the government down and sparked a voter backlash. Lawmakers rushed to pass a minimum-wage hike, welfare reform and a bill to let workers keep their health insurance when they change jobs.

The cooperation admittedly helped Clinton win a second term, but it also enabled Republicans to retain control of Congress. House strategists say that they believe the impact would be the same this time around. In contrast, confrontation and gridlock would only help Democrats, they said.

Republicans appear to be delighted with the new strategy. “So far, it’s worked pretty well. We’ve improved in the polls and Denny’s standing as House Speaker has risen accordingly,” exulted Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), a sometime critic of Hastert’s leadership.

Republicans Still Face Obstacles

To be sure, there is no guarantee that the new push by House Republicans will be successful. Even if they are able to reach some compromises with Clinton, they still face potentially formidable opposition from other key players in both parties:

* While House GOP leaders may see compromise as the key to their survival, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) wants to put off any high-profile legislation lest Democrats try to tie it up with amendments that will force Republicans into uncomfortable votes.

“They’re going to have to drag Trent Lott into going along with some of these things,” a key House GOP strategist said.

* The House effort also could be derailed if Texas Gov. George W. Bush, exercising his new status as Republican presidential front-runner, presses congressional leaders to hold up any new legislation until he takes office, if he wins in November.

* Even on bills that do make it through the Senate, Republicans simply may not be able to cut a deal with the White House on some issues. Democrats are determined not to give the GOP any victories to flaunt in November and are expected to pressure Clinton not to go along.

Indeed, the GOP effort already is facing some potentially daunting obstacles.

Clinton has threatened to veto the GOP-crafted marriage penalty bill on grounds that it is too costly and skewed too far toward upper-income taxpayers. On Wednesday, he vowed to reject the GOP’s minimum-wage bill, pushing for a faster, two-year hike instead.

“If Republican leaders send me a bill that makes workers wait for another year for their full pay raise and holds the minimum wage hostage for risky tax cuts that threaten our prosperity, I’ll veto it,” said Clinton, who hosted Cabinet members, labor and community leaders and Democratic lawmakers on the South Lawn of the White House.

“It is time to stop nickel and diming American working people out of the money that they need and deserve,” the president said. “This is just wrong.”

Although both presidential threats are widely regarded as opening shots--designed to buffalo Republicans into shaping the bills more to the president’s liking in preparation for a possible deal later--they are a warning that the bargaining will not be easy.