New Budget Numbers Narrow Gap Between White House, Congress - Dec. 2, 1996

Rubin: Timing Perfect For Balanced Budget - Nov. 26, 1996

Clinton: Budget Plans Will Be Sensitive To Poor

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Dec. 12) -- In an attempt to quiet recent criticism from his own party, President Bill Clinton is pledging that his administration will be "exceedingly sensitive" to the needs of poor Americans while forging a balanced budget plan. (224K AIFF or WAV sound)

Promising to "reduce the deficit in a way that would be fair to all Americans," Clinton told reporters today, "We have to be exceedingly sensitive to what policy judgments are made, so that we don't do the rest of the work of balancing the budget on the backs of poor children."

"We have to be very, very sensitive from here on in, and I assure you we're working on that," Clinton said.

In a speech to the Democratic Leadership Council on Wednesday, Clinton vowed to maintain the centrist policies that got him re-elected. But the concern of traditionally liberal Democrats is growing amid reports that the president's push for a bipartisan balanced budget may mean cuts in federal programs for the poor.

A group of senators drafted a letter to the president predicting dire consequences if his new budget includes a 25 percent cut from the federal home heating oil assistance program. Poor Americans, the letter said, will be "forced to choose between heating or cooling their homes and putting food on the table."

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said no Decision had been made about fuel oil assistance and that "this is an idea that is being used by certain people who are concerned about the budgetary process to advance their goals."

In regard to another budget leak, a member of Clinton's Cabinet denounced a proposal by the Office of Management and Budget to trim the federal housing budget by at least $1 billion.

A Dec. 3 memo from outgoing Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros to OMB Director Franklin Raines charged that the proposed cuts would undermine all reforms made by the department over the last four years. "Now is not the time to change course," Cisneros wrote.

In a hand-written note added to the three-page letter, Cisneros told Raines that "there are damaging policy reversals in these proposals" and "in some instances, they would literally stop our reforms in their tracks. In others, they would concede ground we have successfully defended for four hard years."

Cisneros' scathing evaluation was publicized in The Wall Street Journal, prompting McCurry to comment on Wednesday, "One Cabinet agency made an argument today in The Wall Street Journal that would have been much more influential if they'd made it directly to the OMB first."