IV TAT1 'll (2! Associated Press Nebraskan
^ X T V2 VV U> ML~J iCLV C* i Edited by Jana Pedersen Monday, October 8,1990
New proposal may beat Tuesday shutdown deadline
Lawmakers continue budget negotiations
WASHINGTON - Democratic leaders pre
dicted Sunday that a new budget agreement
easing Medicare cuts and tempering excise tax
increases will be reached before the govern
ment shutdown takes full effect Tuesday.
Democrats told their leaders to go ahead
with a plan designed to let Democratic-con
trolled committees draft later the specifics for
reaching $5(X) billion in deficit reduction over
the next five years.
Republicans were balking but House Speaker
Thomas S. Foley, D-Wash., said he might go
ahead with it anyway. Informal bipartisan talks
continued into the night Sunday as the House
remained on standby to consider any plan put
before it.
The Senate, meanwhile, convened at 6 p.m.
and adjourned 12 minutes later after conclud
ing that it would be hours, at best, before
anything concrete would emanate from the
House.
That meant there was no chance of a final
budget agreement being approved Sunday, but
the practical impact of pushing a decision into
today was marginal since it is Columbus Day
— a federal holiday.
Republicans and Democrats, meanwhile,
continued to blame each other for the partial
government shutdown that closed federal tour
ist attractions and other weekend programs
nationwide.
Foley said President Bush’s veto Saturday
of a bill designed to keep the government
operating during the negotiations was “a bad
mistake” that had slowed the talks.
-a
There's not a dime s worth of
tax increases, not ten cent's
worth of cuts in the budget
resolution. It allows the com
mittees to consider these
issues.
Foley
House speaker
-„ _
The president was ‘‘saying wc ought to
rebuild the fiscal house of this country and
(then he) sets the house on fire for awhile to get
our attention,” Foley said.
Bush spent Sunday at his mountaintop re
treat at Camp David, Md., conferring by tele
phone with his chief of staff, John Sununu, and
Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, part of
the administration team that negotiated the
defeated budget pact.
Vice President Dan Quayle, appearing on
ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley”
program, said Bush was not the problem, “The
problem is Congress.”
Quayle predicted that 90 percent of the
budget deal Bush unsuccessfully lobbied for
last week would remain, and would pass with a
few changes.
“We now know what the problems were
with the old one,” agreed Sen. James Sasser, D
Tenn., chairman of the Senate Budget Com
mittee.
“The new budget agreement in my view will
address the problem of the overly large Medi
care cuts ... and also will address the revenue
part of the package,” said Sasser, also appear
ing on ABC.
The draft plan circulated in the House would
reduce from $60 billion to $42 billion the
amount that Medicare would contribute to deficit
reduction over the next five years.
Beneficiaries of Medicare coverage would
only be expected to bear S12 billion ot the cost,
compared to $28 billion in the original pack
age. The rest would be made up by limiting
allowances for providers of the medical serv
ices for the elderly.
Although the draft did not spell out details,
legislators said they were told the deductible
for doctors’ bills would rise from $75 to SUM),
instead of $150 in the original plan. In addition,
monthly premiums would rise ata much slow er
rate.
Opposition from the public to the package
seemed to concentrate on a list of provisions
including the Medicare premiums and fees,
and a 12-ccnt motor fuel boost and a 2 cent tax
on home healing oil which the new plan might
also change.
In a closed-door caucus that members said
showed deep divisions in the ranks, many GOP
members told their leaders they now were
ready to go along with raising income tax rates
on the wealthy in order to win for Bush a cut in
the tax rate on capital gains. But there was no
assurance in the draft the Democrats would
make that trade, which Republicans had op
posed in the original pact.
Beast hunters
fail to locate
fl elusive Nessie
I DRUMNADROCHIT, Scotland -
1 A two-day search for the Loch Ness
i monster ended Sunday with two blips
I on a radar screen but no evidence of
I the legendary beast.
§ National oddsmakers William Hill
I Organization Ltd., which had offered
| 250,000 pounds ($4 77,500) for “con- .
1 elusive evidence” of Nessie, kept its
| reward but paid 1,500 pounds ($2,850)
I to a Scottish company for the best
search method.
Oceanscan, which supplies under
water sonar equipment for the North
Sea oil industry, used underwater radar
and registered an unidentified object
up to 26 feet long.
“The object which showed up
yesterday registered as two blips on
the sonar screen but it moved out of
range very quickly. We can’t be sure
what it was,” said Andy Gray, Ocean
scan’s managing director.
The three other hunting parties
participating in the first major search
in three years came up empty.
The lake is 754 feet deep, 23 miles
long and a mile wide.
William Hill is offering 100-1 odds
that Nessie’s existence will not be
authenticated within a year.
1\t ipaily
Nebraskan
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_1990 DAILY NEBRASKAN
rl 'Ijiv W MAl'4rj 'arL?Svi- ■? ' T
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