By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Declaring Democrats "committed to breaking the legislative logjam," President Clinton huddled yesterday with his party's leaders to plot strategy for a fall congressional session destined to be dominated by the presidential campaign's final stretch.
The president sat with House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to discuss how Democrats will deal with, among other things, Republican efforts to push through election-year tax cuts.
Clinton said the highest priority for Congress should be passing a $1 increase in the hourly minimum wage, rather than trying to corral enough votes to override his veto of a bill repealing the estate tax.
"They've got a right to try to override any veto that I make. That's the way the Constitution works," Clinton said. "But I wish they'd try just as hard to muster up the two-thirds to raise the minimum wage."
House Republican leaders have promised to pursue the veto override - and, if the override fails, to argue that the estate tax would itself die if George W. Bush is elected. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said the White House is confident that the estate tax veto and Clinton's previous veto of a tax cut for couples will be sustained.
Clinton defended the vetoes, saying they were necessary to stave off tax cuts that would eat away at projected budget surpluses without taking into account the costs of whatever spending programs the Republicans plan to offer.
"We are committed to breaking the legislative logjam," Clinton said. "Unfortunately, the strategy pursued by the Republican leaders in Congress, I believe, would squander (the surplus) on massive and reckless tax cuts for the privileged few. This isn't fiscally responsible. It isn't fair."
Daschle noted that, during the Republican National Convention, GOP lawmakers called for passage of a patients' bill of rights and prescription drug coverage for senior citizens.
"We intend to give our Republican colleagues a chance to make their rhetoric match their record," Daschle said. "If they really believe in these things, all they have to do is stop blocking them. We will support them and the president said today, again, he will sign them."
Gephardt said Republican lawmakers have said little about the large tax cut that they touted last year, because they discovered that most people were skeptical about it. Rather than drop the idea of a big tax cut, he said, they have now "carved it up into teensy slices" in an attempt to get it passed.
"The Republicans were dogged. They kept at it and they refused to take no for an answer," Clinton said. "That, in a nutshell, is what brings us to the current endgame. We have a lot of work to do."
Lockhart said Clinton - with no campaign of his own and little time left in office - is willing to devote his full attention to budget negotiations, even if they spill over into the campaign's final stretch.
"If Congress can't get their work done by Oct. 1, we're not going any place," Lockhart said. "We'll stay here through Election Day if need be."
