Clinton Signs Spending Bill To Mid-March

Republicans managed to insert wording into the emergency spending bill to keep the US government running until March 15, signed last week by president Clinton, that would prohibit all spending on fetal research and deny aid for international family planning programs until July. Other provisions would freeze new grant activities at a level not to exceed 75% of the prior monthly rate for programs including the National Vaccine Program and the National AIDS program Office. health and Human Services is among the agencies which will be funded at 1995 levels through mid-March.

National Economic Adviser laura Tyson said the administration's main objection to proposed GOP cuts in future medicare and Medicaid budgets is that the spending caps would force medicare to cut its costs faster than the private health care industry is doing, imposing second-class care on Medicare and Medicaid recipients. there seems to be growing acceptance of a partial federal budget this year, she added.

$100 Million In Cuts A "Down Payment?" Congress should try again to achieve a balanced budget compromise rather than taking a piecemeal approach, said Senate Majority Whip Trent Lott and Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, appearing on Meet The Press; there is growing Senate support for a bipartisan plan to balance the budget over seven years. Sen Daschle reiterated Democratic objections to Republican proposals for large savings from medicare and Medicare and a large tax cut, and agreed with Sen Lott that it is too soon to give up on a balanced budget plan. Rather than a "down payment" of up to $100 billion in spending cuts on a achieving a balanced budget, which news reports say House Speaker Newt Gingrich believes Republicans might accept, he said what is needed is a truce, so that there could be a "full payment."