President Clinton accused GOP lawmakers of steering the federal budget into fiscal peril with huge, “risky” tax cuts he said endanger prosperity and shortchange Social Security, Medicare and education.
Republicans said a $1.8 trillion agreement reached Friday between leaders of the House and Senate budget committees embodies tax cuts as a “moral issue” to help working people.
In his weekly radio talk, Clinton said tax cuts to aid people saving for college or retirement and to trim the so-called marriage penalty are possible “if Congress takes care of first things first.”
He said that meant “maintaining fiscal discipline” and pushing efforts such as paying down the national debt, safeguarding Social Security and adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare.
“But it seems the congressional majority has hardly given (these priorities) a second thought” while allocating “nearly half a trillion dollars to risky tax cuts.”
