Budget Differences Narrow -- Dec. 2, 1996

Balancing The Budget -- Nov. 26, 1996

Office of Management and Budget Home Page

Budget Work Continues In Post-Christmas Lull

By Carl Rochelle/CNN

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Dec. 26) -- President Bill Clinton is keeping a low profile on this day after Christmas. So far today, the press hasn't spotted him. But that doesn't mean he isn't working.

CNN has learned that the president has been given a set of budget documents to review, so he can make his final Decisions on what the administration's budget next year will look like.

Administration officials say one aim of the budget proposal is to try to engage Republicans in serious budget talks as soon as possible, talks the White House hopes will produce a balanced budget by 2002.

One of the key Decisions Clinton still needs to make concerns the contentious issue of Medicare.

CNN has learned that the Medicare proposal on the table calls for spending reductions of between $99 billion and $105 billion over five years.

But, they caution, the president has not made a firm Decision on how extensive the cuts in projected spending should be.

On another contentious issue, welfare reform, the administration is expected to propose between $13 billion and $16 billion in increased spending to reinstate some benefits taken away in the welfare reform bill passed this year. The money would go toward bringing back some food stamp benefits, child care and nutrition benefits and some benefits taken away from legal immigrants.

Some Republicans have vowed to fight such increases.

The president signed the welfare reform bill but said at the time certain parts of it were objectionable to him and that he planned to restore those benefits as soon as possible.

Clinton and his budget advisors met with several Cabinet secretaries last week to discuss the budget and to hear opinions on some preliminary allocations for their departments.

The president has to come up with more than $100 billion in spending cuts over the next five years if he wants to carry out his campaign promises of a $500-per-child tax credit, a $500 million capital gains exemption for the sale of a home and college tuition credits of $1,500.

There may be some good news for the White House budget effort. Officials here expect the Congressional Budget Office to predict a lower deficit. That could mean as much as $50 billion in additional money for the budget.

Exactly how that money would be distributed is one of the major Decisions the president has to make.