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Show Friday, October 27. 1995 THE DULY HERALD. Provo. I tah :igi2S sumo troops Glisters says By WALTER R. MEARS AP Special Correspondent - iQvm Analysis g campaign for the Truman presidential library in Independence, Mo. It was a Wednesday night of nostalgic Truman tales and praise for his style of leadership, in 10 speeches and "I always love to a be at events honoring Harry Truman because I come from a family that was for him When he w as alive," Clinton said. Facing congressional opposition in his determination to make U.S. troops part of a prospective NATO peacekeeping operation in Bosnia, Clinton said he knows what Truman would have done in his place. "The question I have is this: If Harry Truman were president would he expect the United States as the leader in NATO to be a part of the force in Bosnia," Clinton said. "I think you know what the answer is. The answer is yes. "And so must we." "That first war in Sarajevo, that was Harry Truman's war. ... He showed people the kind of leadership capacity he had. ... "If he were here he would say. "If you really want to honor me. prepare for the future, as I fund-raisin- Ag Eban recalled offering his credentials to Truman as ambassador of Israel, and said the president grabbed his papers and said. "" Let's cut out the crap and have a real talk." '"If there was such a thing as an imperial presidency, nobody had broken the news to Harry Truman." Eban said. Eban and historian Arthur Schlesinger said Truman often told people he never lost a night's sleep over his decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan, but they said he sometimes would bring up the subject abruptly. They said he spoke of his peace of mind so often they came to believe the bombings actually haunted him. Carter recalled that he had wept at the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, "not realizing that Harry Truman would become, in my opinion, the greatest president of the 20th centurv." r& v If fj V iJ growth of Medicare and other government social programs or "we will just stop America from honoring its obligations for the first time in its history." A default would occur if Con- AP Photo dinner President Clinton addresses a black-ticelebrating the 50th anniversary of Harry Truman's presidency Wednesday in Washington. Clinton invoked the legacy of Truman to say that he is determined U.S. forces will be part of a NATO peacekeeping force in Bosnia. e declined to SI 64 billion in the fiscal year that ended in September, the third straight annual decrease. He declared at a news conference that he would not cave in to a Republican threat to force the nation to the brink of an unprecedented default on its debt obligations unless he accepted what he termed extreme GOP budget cuts. "If the Republicans plunge ahead and pass this budget. I will veto it and demand a budget that reflects our values." Clinton told reporters. Clinton took obvious pride in the deficit figures, noting that it was the first time since President Truman was in office in the 1950s that the federal deficit has declined for three straight years. This achievement, he said, reflected the tough budget decisions he pushed through Congress during his first year in office. He said his plan had worked "better than we though it would." Clinton termed what the Republicans were doing "economic blackmail, pure and simple." He said they essentially were telling him that he had to accept their sharp reductions in the gress does not agree to raise the national debt ceiling, currently at S4.9 trillion. If the ceiling is not raised, the government cannot pay its debts to holders of U.S. Trea sury securities. The president's veto threat underscored his previous statements that the Rerablican budget plan must be changed. Clinton has argued that it would devastate the government's education and training programs, ruin health benefits for the poor and elderly and hurt the nation's prospects for future economic crowth committee members agree to disagree, focus on budget vote WASHINGTON A cease-fir- e Agriculture Committee means the shape of major farm the House programs likely will be worked out when House and Senate negotiators sit down next week. Saying the planned House vote on a plan to balance the entire federal budget was more important than a spat over subsidies, the committee members concluded Wednesday that they will agree to disagree for now. The overall budget bill was being debated Thursday by the House and the temporary agreement within the committee means it probably w ill be supported by 14 farm-stat- e Republicans who otherwise might have defected. It also gives the House leadership, including Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, a chance to showcase legislation that drastically changes farm programs. And it also means the final product may not look so novel Under the settlement, both sides agreed that the best place to work out differences was in negotiations that always occur between the House and Senate resolve differences in their bills. Those talks should happen next week. "We're in a new game." said Rep. one of the Larry Combest. dissenters. '"I look at it like we're basically starting from square one." and the others Roberts. said balancing the budget was more important. "A balanced budget will cut farmers' costs by a minimum of S15 billion in reduced interest expenses." he said at a news conference. "That alone is more than we are required to cut to get to a balanced budget." The House and Senate Agriculture committees had to cut SI 3.4 billion, or !7 percent, from farm spending over seven years. The dispute centered on how to make those cuts. Roberts' "Freedom to Farm" proposal would end traditional farm programs at the same time it gave farmers a fixed but declining payment to ease the transition. The dissident lawmakers wanted to traditional programs, preserve especially those that benefit cotton, but cut spending by making fewer acres eligible for farm pay ments. They argued that the Roberts proposal amounted to welfare because it paid- - farmers regardless of crop prices. A separate provision in the Debt auctions suddenly loom large live in." said Rubin, who was of the Wall Street firm Goldman. Sachs & Co. before joining the administration. Rubin has already begun making adjustments to keep from hitting the debt ceiling, announcing last week that he was cutting in half to S6 billion the amount of h Treasury bills sold at auction this week. But he said all of this maneuvering will still mean the government will run out of cash around By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer In this WASHINGTON year's titanic struggle over the federal budget, the arcane world of government debt auctions is suddenly looming as a very big deal. President Clinton says the Republicans are engaging in nothing less than "economic blackmail" by threatening to force the government into default on the national debt unless he agrees to their draconian budget cuts. Robert Rubin, Clinton's treasury secretary, says such a default is unthinkable and would have erious economic repercussions for the next 20 years. But for their part. Republicans of accuse the administration rhetorical overkill aimed at masking the fact that the White House is unwilling to begin negotiations on ; WASHINGTON President Clinton announced Wednesday that the federal budget deficit o former government officials traded Truman stories. Abba e. By ROBERT GREENE AP Farm Writer in By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer run-dow- The black-tie- d Washington establishment celebrated the legacy of the president who came to office in 1945 at a dinner launching a $10 million mini-movi- declined did."" Clinton told the gathering. Two prior presidents joined the salute. Gerald Ford recalling his trip to the White House as a freshman congressman in 1949 to tour the n mansion, renovated in Truman's time, and hear the president complain about the bad bathrooms. Jimmy Carter said he'd come out of admiration for Truman, '"and out of sy mpathy for people who have to raise money to support presidential libraries." Georgians Carter and Sen. Sam Nunn paid special tribute to Truman's efforts for civil rights, which he once was told would cost him the election in 194S. Truman replied that if that's why he lost, it would be in the right cause. Earlier, at the Library of Congress, a panel of historians and WASHINGTON Saluting Harry' S. Truman 50 years later President Clinton said he knows what the 33rd president would do if he were in the White House send American troops today to Bosnia. D5 Clinton: Deficit SIP 1 1 Past Credible seven-yea- r plan. deficit-reductio- n As both the House and Senate the budget began debating Wednesday, Clinton told reporters he .Would not hesitate to veto what he, considers ing uits. unreasonable spend- .''I am not going to let anybody Medicare or education or the environment or the future of this hold; country hostage," he declared. "If the)-- ; send me a budget that says simply, "Vou take our cuts or we'll I lej'tbe country go into default,' veto it." Clinton announced that the declined to $164 billion fiscal year, irt Ihe the' third straight decrease and jfj three-mont- Nov. 6. l - - AP Photo President Clinton points to a chart during a news conference to cuss the budget in the White House briefing room Wednesday. own budget proof, he said, that his was working. program In an interview with The Associated Press, Rubin said that if increase the Congress does not it will and quickly, debt ceiling in form of the costs have major rates. interest higher He said without agreement on a debt increase by next Wednesday, he will be forced to delay Treasury auctions totaling more than $100 billion money that is needed, in to pay Social Security recipipart, current holders of the and ents government's debt. But Republicans accused Rubin of fudging the date for when the government will actually hit the dis- current $4.9 trillion debt ceiling. Once at the limit, the government cannot borrow any more funds, something it must do to pay its bills. Responding to Rubin's Nov. deadline. House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich. said, "He keeps changing his dates. Rubin's got to get his dates straight." Often gesturing with his hands a point, Rubin insistunderscore to ed during the interview that he has been as specific as he can. "1 spent 26 years in a business where clarity and precision about numbers were what you lived or died by. And that is a habit of mind that I brought to the world I now 1 While some Republicans have raised the possibility that the administration could draw down the Social Security trust fund for a short time to get through the crisis. Rubin said the administration had no intention of doing this. He cited legal challenges that were raised the last time it was done during a similar debt standoff in ' S 5 Rubin said he believed that in the end. Congress will pass an increase in the debt limit because the failure to do so would have such grave consequences. It would affect not only interest rates the government must pay but the money that home owners would pay in higher mortgage rates over the next 20 years. . Approval of a long-ter- increase in the debt ceiling also would remove a major impediment to beginning negotiations between the White House and Congress over the budget, Rubin suggested. "If we get that out of the way. then we have a basis for sitting down" to negotiate, he said. Roberts bill would end government regulation of dairy prices. Disagreements over that were still being negotiated Wednesday. The leader of those concerned about dairy. Rep. Gerald Solomon. had said he would support g bill regardthe less of his disagreement over dairy. The Senate version more resembles the proposal from Reps. Bill and Combest. Emerson. two of the original four dissenters who kepi the committee from approving Roberts' proposal last month. Reps. Savby Chambliss. and Richard Baker. also had blocked the vote. budget-balancin- Combest. Chambliss and Fmerson said at the news conference they had been assured their concerns over the Roberts proposal "would be addressed" in negotiations. Roberts emphasied that the concerns would be addressed, but not necessarily met. But Roberts began playing up the similarities rather than the differences between his "Freedom to Farm" proposal and the Senate proposal. '"The Senate and House hills are different in many ways, but there are also many similarities," he said. "Both bills have a market ori- entation." Farm bill proposal may end wetlands provision By ROBERT GREENE AP Farm Writer House WASHINGTON Republicans may propose cutting the link between farm program payments and wetlands protection. But they insist that other laws will guard the environmentally sensitive land. Rep. Way ne Allard. said Wednesday that his farm bill proposal may do away w ith the "swampbuster" provisions. He said agricultural wetlands would instead fall under jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act. He said the purpose is to av oid duplication of laws. Environmental groups challenged that argument, saying the wetlands proposal and others would allow government subsidies to continue without any protection for the environment. "They are basically eliminating one of the last social purposes of these programs." said Kenneth A. Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group. The measure would be contained in the part of the farm g bill not folded into budget-balancin- legislation. Although not precisely defined, wetlands generally are areas that hold water long enough to support vegetation adapted to wet soils. Environmentalists argue that even small wetlands of an acre or so port migratory fow I. sup- Farmers that contend duplicative and confusing wetlands rules, and inconsistent enforcement, make it difficult to farm without getting in trouble. Allard, chairman of the House Agriculture subcommittee in charge of conservation, said his measure, by divorcing wetlands enforcement from farm programs, will keep wetlands protection on the books even when farm subsidies are lowered. "Farmers will still have to comply." he said. But environmentalists question whether the Clean Water Act would protect all the agricultural land now covered by farm law. Other provisions of the bill would convert the permanent easements under the Wetlands Reserve Program to 15-ye- ar contracts. The program pays landowners to take wetlands out of production. Allard argued (hat the shortened contract will encourage more landowners to try the program. Environmentalists say the program has more takers already than the government has money available. Other provisions would return conservation enforcement in the Agriculture Department to the Farm Service Agency. |