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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Dole Talks Up Gop Unity Around New Agenda Accountability, Balanced Budget Amendment, Tax Cut At Top Of List

Jim Abrams Associated Press

It’s the Republicans’ turn in power and the party will unite to stop any effort by Democrats to sidetrack their agenda, incoming Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole said Sunday.

“We control the Congress now and we’re going to set the agenda,” the Kansas Republican said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“I’m going to ask my colleagues to stick with the leader to table all these efforts by Democrats in the early days to embarrass Republicans or to bring up issues that don’t affect congressional coverage,” he said.

Specifically, Dole said he would work to defeat any attempt by the Democrats to attach a gift-ban amendment on the Republicans’ “Congressional Accountability Act” bill that would make members of Congress abide by the same laws that all other Americans must obey.

A Republican filibuster in the Senate effectively killed efforts in the last Congress to pass a bill that would have banned nearly all gift-giving from lobbyists to lawmakers.

Dole said the gift ban and campaign finance reform might come up later in the session, but “we have a majority; we haven’t had it for a while. Give us an opportunity to address some of these questions.”

Dole and others speaking on the Sunday news programs emphasized that the new GOP majority in the session that opens Wednesday will focus on priority issues such as a balanced budget amendment and a tax cut for the middle class. Social issues such as federal funding for family planning will be left for later, they said.

Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., the next head of the House Judiciary Committee and a vocal anti-abortion lawmaker, said his panel will wait until after the first 100 days of the session before revisiting the “gag rule” that bars doctors in federally financed family planning centers from discussing abortion with patients. The Clinton administration has lifted the rule.

Dole, too, said that while the abortion issue might be taken up later, it was “not on the legislative agenda” now.

Dole defined the middle class tax cut being sought by Republicans as “a good, reasonable tax cut that’s paid for, that will have some impact on the people who receive it and some impact on the economy.”

He said he will look at cutting the capital gains tax, long a favorite goal of Republicans that “sends chills down the spines of some liberals who say we’re helping the rich.”

But Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio, the next head of the House Budget Committee, said the first objective must be to cut spending, because Congress must prove itself to financial markets and the American people who don’t think it is capable of controlling spending.

But Kasich said it probably would be April before his committee unveils details of how it plans to cut federal spending in order to meet the Republican goal of balancing the budget within seven years.

He said there will have to be systematic changes in Medicare, the elimination of some government agencies and departments, and fewer agriculture subsidies.

“You will see significant changes in agriculture, because, if you don’t, I think we’ll lack credibility,” Kasich said on ABC.

Kasich predicted that a balanced budget amendment would pass, but Hyde acknowledged that one aspect of the Republican proposal, to require a three-fifths majority for any tax increase, is “not looked upon with much favor in the Senate.”