Trying to focus the budget debate on children, President Clinton said Saturday that spending cuts proposed by Republicans in Congress would gut safe-school and anti-drug programs needed to protect youngsters.
"I am concerned that the Republicans are willing to sacrifice our children's safety and our ability to learn in a secure environment to pay for . . . tax cuts for upper-income Americans," Clinton said in his weekly radio address.His criticisms were part of an ongoing administration campaign against GOP proposals to cut the budget for the current fiscal year and to go well beyond the spending reductions requested in Clinton's proposed budget for fiscal 1996.
In the Republican response to Clinton's address, Sen. Paul Coverdell of Georgia accused Clinton of being a roadblock to change by opposing a proposed balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee steep cuts.
"It is precisely this thinking that has led our federal government to spend every dime we have, $5 trillion we don't have, and rob the future of our children and grand-children," Coverdell said.
He argued that Clinton was "putting Americans in harm's way with the politics of status quo."
Clinton sought to put children at the center of the debate Saturday by singling out a GOP proposal to eliminate the administration's safe-schools program, which is providing $482 million to states this year to fight drugs and ensure security for schoolchildren.
The president plans to continue the emphasis on children in a speech Tuesday to the National Association of Counties. And Education Secretary Richard Riley plans to travel the country next week arguing against GOP-proposed cuts in education and nutrition programs that benefit children.
The battle over whether to slash this year's budget and over next year's spending plan is sure to intensify now that the balanced-budget amendment has been defeated.
Republicans are trying to cut $17.5 billion from the current budget. The House Appropriations Committee last week approved two bills that would slash money for a variety of programs ranging from housing and education to peacekeeping and the president's national service project.
Clinton complained that the Republicans were being indiscriminate in their zeal to reduce spending, and would use the money for a tax-cut package that funnels too much of its benefits to the well-to-do.
"The Republican contract says we should cut just about everything to pay for big tax cuts that go mostly to upper-income people," he said. Clinton said he was ready to work with Congress to find more budget cuts, "but not in education or jobs or the safety of our children."
A Time-CNN poll of 800 Americans released Saturday found that most people are none too pleased with either Clinton, House Speaker Newt Gingrich or the Congress overall.
Clinton's approval rating was 43 percent, down from 49 percent earlier in February, while 38 percent approved of how Gingrich was handling his job and 34 percent approved of the performance of Congress. The survey was conducted Feb. 28-March 1 and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.