Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole rejected President Clinton's proposal for a limited budget deal Friday, calling the idea a "non-starter."
Speaking at a news conference during a convention of Southern Republicans, Dole accused the president of being out of step with the public on the budget issue.On Thursday, Clinton suggested he and Congress could reach a limited budget deal now and make ideo-logical differences an issue for the November election. The president maintains that he, Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich are fairly close to agreement on numbers if not on policy positions.
Like Gingrich, Dole rejected Clinton's diagnosis of the problem, particularly the idea of a possible limited deal.
"I think it's a non-starter," the Kansas Republican said on the eve of a televised Iowa debate with his eight presidential campaign rivals that will help set the tone for the state's crucial party caucuses on Feb. 12.
"My view is, it doesn't work that way. You don't get to a balanced budget. And we've given our word, when the American people gave us sort of a mandate in 1994, that we would fundamentally change the way the government does things."
Dole also disclosed that the possibility of a limited budget deal had already been discussed in meetings between Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and congressional leaders.
The two opposing budget camps are expected to restart negotiations next Wednesday. But Dole said if an agreement did not prove feasible, voters would be asked to approach the November election as a referendum on the budget issue.
"If we can't reach an agreement, I don't know of a better jury out there than the American people," he said.
Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, who bills himself as a Washington outsider with a true vision of America's future, lam-basted both sides for the budget stalemate that has partially shut the federal government twice since last fall.
"The country's getting fed up with this business of the Congress and the president not being able to balance the budget, for gosh sakes. I mean, that's like the two teams at the Super Bowl showing up and advancing to the four-yard line from zero and asking for cheers," he told reporters at the same convention.
"It's their job. Balance the budget and get on out of Washington, and let's talk about jobs and schools and families."
Dole also told reporters the North American Free Trade Agreement and the pact that created the World Trade Organization from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade should be reviewed.
He said legislation to empower Congress to withdraw from international trade pacts, rather than the president, would be added to any budget agreement with Clinton.
"If there should be a budget agreement, that provision will be added to the budget agreement," Dole said.