As serious budget negotiations began Tuesday afternoon, congressional Republicans made clear the talks must succeed within the next few days if they are going to succeed at all.
"Everybody knows we're at the end of the road," House Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, said after a long meeting with White House officials, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and congressional budget writers. "We'll know in the next couple of days if it's a boy or girl and whether it's a successful birth."
Senate Majority Leader Lott again said his patience with the administration is wearing thin.
"I have been waiting for three months for the administration to act in good faith on the budget," said Lott, who did not attend the meeting. "They've got another week."
Tuesday's session centered on Medicare, and House Ways and Means ranking Democrat Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said administration officials had signalled a willingness to find an additional $18 billion in Medicare savings from cuts to healthcare providers. The administration had estimated its FY98 budget achieved $100 billion in Medicare savings, but the CBO disagreed, saying the savings came to only $82 billion.
Asked whether Rangel's comments accurately reflected the administration position, Office of Management and Budget Director Franklin Raines told reporters, "You wouldn't want me to second-guess the senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee."
Tuesday's meeting included budget writers as well as leaders from authorizing committees with jurisdiction over Medicare. While he did not attend the meeting, Senate Finance Health Subcommittee Chairman Phil Gramm, R-Texas, said the $100 billion in Medicare savings would be acceptable.
"We can do everything we need to do with $100 billion," he said, but added he did not like how the administration proposed to reach the savings.
Senate Budget Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said the three-and-a-half hour session on spending was "healthy" and budget talks will continue this week. "We arrived at no conclusions," he said. "Can we get a budget based on these discussions? I don't know that yet." Kasich said "it was very good to get everybody in there."
The budget negotiators said they are far from an agreement. "We're a long, long way off," said House Budget ranking member John Spratt, D-S.C. Agreed Domenici: "We shouldn't raise false expectations. Today was just a start."
Meanwhile, a key member of The Coalition, the group of moderate-to-conservative House Democrats known as the Blue Dogs, said Tuesday that if the White House and Republican leaders cannot reach agreement, moderate Democrats and Republicans will try to generate support from rank-and-file members.
"If there's not some visible sign of progress, then the rank- and-file has to see if they can broker a deal," said Rep. David Minge, D-Minn., a co-chairman of The Coalition's budget task force.
Lott has expressed willingness to try to reach agreement with moderate Democrats, and Minge said the Blue Dogs want to see what "concrete proposals" the Republicans want to change in The Coalition's budget.
Also Tuesday, several healthcare groups, including the American Hospital Association, endorsed the health provisions contained in The Coalition's budget.
Earlier in the day, Kasich declined to speculate on the possible outcome of the negotiations. "Unlike Muhammed Ali, we won't make predictions," Kasich said. "If we can't reach an agreement, we'll have a strong proposal ourselves."
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