Tuesday, July 29, 1997
Stenholm says balanced-budget deal is what
he's been waiting for
By WILLIAM GARLAND Harte-Hanks Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Abilene, says the balanced-budget
deal reached late Monday between congressional Republicans and
the White House will give him an opportunity he's been waiting
for.
"It's going to give us a chance to vote for a balanced
budget by 2002," he said after the agreement was announced.
"I've waited a long time to vote (for a measure) that projects
actually to balance the budget at a time certain."
While waiting to see some of the details, he said he did not
expect any major drawbacks in the fine print. "I don't know
of any reason not to vote for it."
And when the final version is released sometime this week,
he said the influence of the so-called Blue Dog Democrats, including
himself and other conservative Democrats, would be evident. "I
think you're going to see paw prints all over the final compromise.
"It's a good compromise in which there are wins for both
sides and hopefully the biggest winners are going to be the American
people," said Stenholm, a long-time advocate of a constitutional
amendment to balance the federal budget.
"I'm glad to see that it looks like we're going to have
a targeted capital gains reduction, (as well as) estate tax relief,"
he said. "It's my understanding these will be very targeted
and that's movement in the right direction."
He said he also was pleased with a compromise, pushed hard
by President Clinton, that will allow the $500 per child tax credit
to go to the poorest taxpayers. He said he did not believe it
would amount to a refund for the poorest taxpayers whose total
tax liability might be less than $500.
"It will be a credit where they are paying taxes,"
he said. "That's the way it's been explained to me."
On another issue important for Texas, he said there would be
a favorable compromise on the privatization of the delivery of
welfare benefits, supported by Texas officials in Austin and Washington
but earlier blocked by the White House.
Ed Lorenzen, Stenholm's aide on budget issues, said the compromise
would allow Lockheed Martin Corp. and EDS to be among bidders
for providing welfare services in Texas.
"The compromise we were able to reach is to allow privatization
to be done as a demonstration project where Texas can try contracting
out ... in half of the area of the state," Lorenzen said.
But he said the definition of half the state would be based
on population rather than geographical area. The private contractors
could operate "in as many counties as they wanted so long
as it constituted less than half the population of the state.
"From our perspective, this is pretty much perfect because
we've always wanted to test it out," said Lorenzen. "It
could save a lot of money and make the system a lot more efficient."
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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