What Lott wants
BARNES, FRED
What Lott Wants by Fred Barnes One week after last November's election, President Clinton met privately at the White House with Senate majority leader Trent Lott. Among the subjects discussed was...
...What he told us in the Oval Office," according to Rubin, "was go back out there and make sure that the American public knows that [the president is] fully and energetically opposed to a balanced budget amendment...
...I don't know if we can defeat it, but I'm going to do what I can...
...Lott, pragmatic in his conservatism but zealously in favor of the amendment, insisted it has a good chance of passing in 1997...
...Did you see his comments...
...Unlike Panetta, Bowles is "somebody we can work with," Lott said...
...In 1995, Clinton's cajoling of Democrats helped kill the amendment in the Senate by 1 vote (it passed the House by 10 votes...
...The amendment is merely "a gimmick...
...Lott blames Panetta, who stepped down as White House chief of staff on January 20, more than Rubin for turning Clinton around...
...Also, it could prompt "temporary cessation of all federal payments," including Social Security and Medicare...
...I don't believe we need it, but if we have it, it ought to be implemented in a way that actually works and gives the country what it needs to manage a recession," he said...
...The official suggested Lott's threat of noncooperation on other issues is hollow...
...Trent Lott doesn't need to change the Constitution in order to get a balanced budget agreement" with the president, he said...
...If Clinton and his aides are aggressive and shrill and exaggerate their case against the amendment, he said, that will affect how readily Republicans compromise with the White House on other issues, including the budget Clinton will send to Congress on February 6. Lott was particularly appalled by Rubin's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 17...
...Rubin, far more liberal and partisan than his centrist image, is another story...
...Lott asked his aides the next day...
...Lott said a way might be found to accommodate the president...
...Rubin's criticism of the balanced budget amendment is "really unfortunate," Lott said...
...I was very disappointed in him...
...I just think [the amendment] is a bad idea," he told the Washington Post on January 17...
...The president was under the impression the balanced budget amendment was pretty much a done deal," a White House official said...
...He believed Rubin had taken the "Chicken Little" approach by arguing the amendment would put Social Security and the economy in jeopardy...
...Clinton decided to go back to his previous position of strong opposition...
...So Lott, a resourceful tactician, turned to another approach to persuade the White House to limit its role in fighting the amendment...
...They let him know that with the additional Democrats in the House and some odd changes in the Senate there actually was a shot [at defeating it...
...Executive Editor Fred Barnes is a regular host of "Fox on Politics" on the Fox News Channel...
...Constitutionally, of course, the president's role is already limited...
...How intensely the White House fights the amendment, Lott told me, "is going to be big-time important...
...Panetta took a parting shot at Lott on Face the Nation just before Clinton's inauguration...
...But his part is crucial nonetheless...
...Indeed, though the press has lauded Panetta as an effective negotiator and budget hawk, Republicans think he is neither...
...The next day, Clinton gathered with his advisers, including then-chief of staff Leon Panetta and Treasury secretary Robert Rubin, both fervent foes of the amendment...
...Just be careful how you talk about it," Lott said, "because everything is related around here...
...He thought he was going to have a free ride and now he sees Secretary Rubin is going to use whatever influence he has to oppose it...
...The president needs to speak to his Treasury secretary and tell him to cool the rhetoric if he wants us to work together," Lott said...
...Clinton said he still opposes amending the Constitution to require balancing the budget every year...
...He was really hysterical...
...Lott went out of his way to trash Rubin on Meet the Press on January 19...
...The amendment is scheduled for a vote in both houses in late February...
...In his testimony the next day, he claimed the amendment "could turn slowdowns into recessions and recessions into more severe recessions or even depressions . . . and seriously increase the risk of default on the national debt...
...And I have no problem being against it...
...Lott asked...
...a cover for not facing the tough decisions you've got to face when it comes to balancing the budget...
...So far, the White House has not backed off...
...Among the subjects discussed was the balanced budget amendment...
...When a reporter asked him later that morning if he opposes the amendment, the president sounded far less hostile than before...
...Did you get my message...
...If the president makes it an issue, he can quickly make it more difficult for a Democrat to be for it," said former GOP congressman Vin Weber...
...If passed by two-thirds of the Senate and House, the amendment would go directly to the states for ratification...
...Just after Clinton's swearing-in the next day, Lott encountered Rubin at the Capitol luncheon honoring the president...
...Lott's influence didn't last long...
...One official dismissed Lott's objection as anger over the fact the amendment may now lose...
...Clinton's advisers announced exactly that...
...He's made the amendment a test of Clinton's seriousness about bipartisanship...
...They regard him as hyper-partisan and blame him for the breakdown in budget talks in 1995...
...If he wants a balanced budget, he'd better get his secretary of the Treasury to be calm...
...The president would have no opportunity to sign or veto it...
...Meanwhile, Clinton's public position has hardened...
...But his main concern, he told Lott, is an escape hatch if there's an economic downturn or national emergency...
...We have to do everything possible to prevent this from becoming law," Rubin declared at a Washington breakfast on January 16...
...It was, Lott said later, "a very calm discussion," and it made a strong impression on Clinton...
...Even if every Republican backs the amendment this year, which is likely, it still needs 65 Democrats in the House and a dozen in the Senate to pass...
...Lott preferred the milder opposition ("We don't think it's right to muck around with the Constitution") voiced by Panetta's replacement, Erskine Bowles...
...Republicans learned in 1995 and 1996, the official said, that this "is not a good strategy politically or substan-tively...
...Loud and clear," Rubin answered, noting that he remains opposed to the amendment...
...And any time you cross Lott, there's a price to pay...
...The position of Rubin and Panetta is even tougher...
Vol. 2 • February 1997 • No. 20
