Nostalgic president rebuts GOP tax cut plans

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - His opinion on national priorities may soon be worth less than ''half a soda-pop,'' said President Clinton, but he nonetheless offered a low-key rebuttal Monday to Republican tax cut and spending plans that would far outlast his presidency.

In a nostalgic, valedictory address to the National Governors' Association, Clinton also appealed for civility amid election-year politics and took broad credit for the nation's economic success.

''I ask you to help ensure an election season that is positive, open and vigorous about the real and honest differences, but devoid of the poison that has too often clouded the judgment of everybody involved in the public process,'' Clinton said.

Although Clinton has begged, borrowed or created opportunities lately to tout the economic stewardship and qualifications of his chosen successor, Vice President Al Gore, he did not mention Gore in Monday's address to a bipartisan group of about 35 governors.

Neither did he mention Gore's presumptive GOP opponent, Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Bush skipped the meeting, as did his brother, Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.

Still, Clinton's broad summing-up of the economic and legislative successes of his two terms amounted to an implicit pitch for Gore, and to his own ideas for continued fiscal prudence.

Among those is a special $500 billion reserve fund, which would be out of reach of either the current White House or the current Congress. Clinton says the fund is necessary as a hedge in case projected budget surpluses don't happen.

In an apparent off-the-cuff digression, Clinton mused that his priorities for spending probably won't have a long shelf life.

''I think it would not be responsible for me to propose how to spend all that money,'' Clinton said. Clinton said a quarter plus his opinion ''will get you half a soda pop after next year.''

Congress returned to work this week after a holiday break, and Clinton directly criticized tax cut measures backed by the GOP majority.

The estate tax bill the Senate will vote on this week is too expensive and ill-conceived, Clinton said.

''I think we've got to keep the economy going by hewing to the same principles of fiscal discipline that got us where we are,'' Clinton said. ''And that means I think whatever combination of spending and tax cuts any candidate for any office proposes, there ought to be enough left over,'' to get rid of the national debt and other priorities, he said.

A former governor who once chaired the governors' group, Clinton waxed nostalgic as he thanked the group for cooperation over the years, and credited state executives with helping sustain the national economic boom.

''I thought this was in fact the most partisan speech I have ever heard him give, but he is very good and very subtle,'' said New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman, a Republican, after Clinton's speech. ''If he had mentioned Al Gore then everybody could have said 'yes, this is a very partisan speech.' The fact that he didn't mention Al Gore by name enabled him to get away with it as just policy.''

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican often mentioned as a possible Bush running mate, shared a car from the airport with Clinton and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and had a more positive take on the speech.

''I didn't see it as much partisan, necessarily, as presidential,'' Ridge said.

Clinton saved the direct partisan firepower for later in the day. At a speech in Philadelphia estimated to raise $600,000 for Pennsylvania Senate candidate Rep. Ron Klink, D-Pa., Clinton said every Democratic vote in the Senate counts dearly.

Recalling the recent nomination fight over Enrique Moreno, a Texas judge Clinton nominated for the federal bench, Clinton said Republicans in the Senate tried to disguise their partisan opposition by denying Moreno a hearing. ''And the leader of the Rep party in Texas - you all know who he is - total silence while this man was denied even the dignity of a hearing,'' Clinton said slowly.

Sens. Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison said Moreno, a Harvard-educated lawyer in private practice since 1981, lacked the necessary experience to sit on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Clinton said in a statement at the time that claim was ''unconscionable,'' noting that Moreno won the top rating from the American Bar Association, which evaluates and reports on the professional qualifications of people being considered by the president for nomination to federal judgeships.

Republicans often grumble that Clinton and Gore do not deserve so much credit for a robust economy, and point instead to a lucky combination of technological expansion and sound fiscal management by the independent Federal Reserve. Clinton, who takes pains to say that he never offers advice to Greenspan, did offer Greenspan a ride to the governors' meeting aboard Air Force One. The popular, long-serving Fed chairman is scheduled to address the group Tuesday.

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