Clinton: Softer 'No' On Budget Amendment

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Nov. 12) -- President Bill Clinton says he continues to oppose a constitutional amendment that would require a balanced budget, but signaled a possible softening in his stance.

He suggested for the first time that he could be convinced to support one if it included a proper "escape hatch" that would give the federal government flexibility in dealing with emergencies, such as economic recessions. By one vote, the Senate this year failed to pass a constitutional amendment that would balance the budget.

The president's words prefaced a meeting he convened with the bipartisan congressional leadership at the White House this afternoon. The discussions seemed to go well; Republicans emerged from the meeting speaking conciliatory words.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich said, "I think there's a real desire on the part of everybody to find a way to spend a year really working on solutions, getting them passed in a bipartisan manner, and doing the work of the American people.

"I thought we covered a very wide range of topics," Gingrich continued, "and I think that on most of them we agreed that if we're careful, and we [do it] in a practical, positive, problem-solving way, that we can probably get a great deal done. I think that actually puts us in a position ... to be able, by late next fall, to turn to the American people and say, 'We've proven the American system works.'"

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said, "We did talk about the budget and the need to have a balanced budget and of course a component of that is Medicare. The president will need to make it clear that we have important and tough decisions to make in that area and when he lays out the problem and suggests some solutions, we're certainly prepared to work with him."

Other participants at the meeting were House Majority Leader Dick Armey, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt and Sen. Wendell Ford (D-Ky.).

The White House lineup included the president, Vice President Al Gore, Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and incoming staff chief Erskine Bowles.

Clinton said this morning he'd submit his own budget to Congress as required but appealed to Republicans to put aside the hard feelings from the campaign -- especially the angry exchanges over Medicare.

"We're in this boat together and we have to paddle it together," Clinton said. "That's what the American people want. We've got to remember it's the American people in the boat with us and we're not nearly as important as they are and their future."(288K WAV sound)

McCurry says the president called the congressional meeting to "generate momentum" for the 1998 fiscal year budget process, but says the meeting is not "a budget negotiating session." McCurry says the president wants to feel out where the leadership is when it comes to making a deal to balance the budget by 2002.

After the meeting, the president met for the first time with his team from the Office of Management and Budget who are writing the 1998 plan.

McCurry says the meeting was not intended to bypass the ordinary budget process, which calls for the newly inaugurated president to submit his budget in February, 1997. But by seeing what direction the leadership is leaning toward, Clinton hopes to "jump start" the process.

"We lost a whole year last year," says McCurry, who said the two sides' numbers are not far apart. Asked about the president's specifics, McCurry says the president spent the entire campaign explaining them.

Separately, National Economic Council chief Laura D'Andrea Tyson confirmed she is resigning to take an endowed chair at the University of California at Berkeley. She will teach in its economics department and business school.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Marty Kramer contributed to this report.

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