Budget Deal Evokes Bipartisan Confidence

WASHINGTON — Despite continued sniping from the ideological sidelines at the new federal budget deal, White House officials and Republican congressional leaders on Sunday proclaimed confidence that the compromise will be approved.

Their comments came as they begin the long and tortuous process this week of turning the bare-bones agreement into detailed legislation and shepherding it through Congress.

Some liberal Democrats continue to complain that the deal--intended to balance the budget by 2002--gives too much in tax cuts to the wealthy. But much of the fiercest criticism is now coming from conservative Republicans, who argue that the agreement does too little to restrain the growth of government spending.

Still, the biggest hurdles facing the agreement may be posed not by ideology but by the elaborate power structure in Congress--one that will bring many more voices, political interests and institutional pressures to bear than was the case when the deal’s outlines were crafted in secret meetings by a handful of top White House aides and congressional chieftains.

For instance, filling in the details is sure to put the Clinton administration and the GOP at loggerheads on such questions as how much to cut the capital gains tax, which now has a top rate of 28%. Franklin D. Raines, President Clinton’s top budget official, said Sunday on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation” that the administration can accept a rate of 20%, but some Republicans may want to go further.

Clinton and GOP congressional leaders announced Friday their landmark pact on the broad parameters of a five-year plan designed to eliminate the budget deficit for the first time since 1969. Negotiators agreed on these key elements of the plan: slow the growth of Medicare by $115 billion, save $16 billion on Medicaid, provide a net tax cut of $85 billion and allow increased spending for Clinton initiatives in health, welfare and education.

An initial version of the agreement drew heavy fire from liberal Democrats, who said it shortchanged their party’s values. But those complaints were eased at the last minute when new, vastly improved deficit projections made it possible for negotiators to drop two of the plan’s elements--new limits on Social Security benefits and Medicaid--most heavily criticized by Democrats.

Some liberals still argue that the agreement’s proposed cuts in taxes on capital gains and on the largest family estates are too skewed to the wealthy. “I think way too much of it goes to people at the very top,” Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) said on “Fox News Sunday.”

White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, however, predicted on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press” that the agreement will receive the support of a majority of Democrats. “I’m absolutely confident it will,” he said.

Republican leaders were similarly optimistic. “This is a great victory for our country,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John R. Kasich (R-Ohio) on ABC-TV’s “This Week.”

But some conservatives demurred. Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) complained on the same program that money saved by curbing entitlements would be plowed back into new spending for Clinton’s initiatives, and that the budget is balanced only by making questionable economic assumptions.

William Kristol, a conservative strategist and editor of the Weekly Standard magazine, who also appeared on “This Week,” said the budget deal amounted to “an act of surrender by the high command of the Republican Party.”

As the agreement works its way through Congress in the coming weeks, it will surely be subject to change. GOP leaders can throw their weight behind the general plan, but they have far less power to dictate legislative details than they did two years ago, when Republicans marched in virtual lock-step to pass much of the party’s “contract with America.”

Now, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), weakened by a protracted ethics investigation, has a weaker grip on the loyalty of his rank and file.

Democrats, meanwhile, are particularly worried about what GOP-dominated committees in Congress will do with the proposed tax cuts. The agreement calls for $135 billion in tax cuts (offset by $50 billion in revenue raisers). It is supposed to include capital gains and estate tax relief sought by the GOP, education tax breaks sought by Clinton and tax credits for families with children--a proviso backed by both sides.