President Clinton said Monday "a lot of options" remain on ways to trim the deficit and he's made no final decision yet on a broad-based energy tax hinted at by Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen.
Clinton, speaking to reporters as he signed an order creating a new White House National Economic Council, said the new panel would help him coordinate national economic policy.The president spoke a day after Bentsen, in a television interview, floated the idea of a national consumption tax, most likely one on energy.
Clinton praised Bentsen for doing "a very good job on television" and didn't back away from the notion of a tax.
But, he added, "No decision has been made."
"A lot of options are under consideration, but no decision has been made," Clinton added.
Bentsen on Sunday said the Clinton administration is considering a broad-based energy tax, and a higher-than-expected federal budget deficit makes a middle-income tax cut "much harder."
Bentsen, appearing on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press," did not say specifically that an energy tax will be proposed. But some sort of consumption tax "is going to take place," he said.
"A broad-based energy tax is certainly one of those that is on the table as an option to be considered because it does a couple of things," he said. "One, it raises revenue. On the other point, it helps lead to some environmental objectives that we're trying to bring about by conservation of the use of energy."
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, also appeared on the program and said he would support an energy tax as well as other measures likely to be unpopular.
"Look, it is our budget deficit now," he explained. "We were partners in creating it."
Although he gave no details, Bentsen said a broad-based energy tax is likely. Such a tax, he asserted, would raise revenue, lead to conservation of energy resources and decrease dependence on oil imports.
Asked if the administration would prefer that to a gasoline tax, Bentsen said, "Well, I don't think we've made a decision on that."
Higher excise taxes on beer and tobacco also are "on the table," he said.
Bentsen said President Clinton's economic package still was not complete, despite a campaign promise that it would be ready by Inauguration Day.
The plan, to be proposed next month, would achieve a "fair balance between cuts and expenditures and that of increase in revenues, and it will not be dominated by an increase in revenues," he said.
Bentsen, noting his support for a middle-income tax cut as a senator, added, "the numbers have changed, the deficit increased, so it would be much harder to do that now."