UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday. November 10, 1995
7A
Federal default appears imminent
White House says budget agreement won't be on time
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The White House said today that there was no chance of reaching agreement with Congress to avert a government shutdown next week, and defiant Republicans said President Clinton could blame only himself.
"It's up to the president of the United States," said Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. "If the government shuts down, his fingerprints are going to be all over it."
Dole's comments came shortly after a White House representative said there was no chance of reaching an agreement with Congress on a stopgap spending bill that would avert a shutdown.
On Wall Street, bond prices dropped moderately after the White House statement. It was the first substantial reaction in the
Treasury securities market to the possibility that the government might default on payments for the first time to holders of its debt.
Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich accused Clinton of playing political games rather than negotiating with the Republican Congress.
"It's very difficult to work with a president who seems to be primarily driven by his political advisers to engage in public relations stunts instead of having serious negotiations to do the things the country needs to get the balanced budget," Gingrich said.
The alarm was sounded after the House voted 230-197 Wednesday night for a stopgap bill that would put the government on a strict fiscal diet through Dec. 1, limiting spending in many programs to as little as 60 percent of the level that prevailed during the budget year that ended Sept. 30.
services from new Social Security claims to environmental enforcement would be affected.
Leon Panetta, chief of staff, said yesterday that 800,000 federal employees would be furloughed Tuesday unless Congress sent Clinton a bill he could sign. Federal
The bill's progress is encumbered also by a provision restricting lobbying by private organizations and companies that receive federal funds.
And even before final action is taken on the GOP plan to carve $270 billion in seven years from Medicare savings, the bill would raise Medicare premiums for doctors' bills and lab tests, effective Jan. 1.
The Senate, where many Republicans are less confrontational than House GOP freshmen, appeared likely to delete the much-disputed lobbying restriction, sponsored by Rep. Ernest Isook, R-Okla.
But that would not be enough to avoid a veto from the administration, which wants a higher spending level.
Senate Republicans were planning to act yesterday on their stopgap spending measure and were discussing a Dec. 5 date for its expiration, four days later than the House version.
Official claims Aug. 4 attack in Tonkin Gulf didn't happen
Strategist fuels idea that U.S.made it up
The Associated Press
"Absolutely nothing," replied retired Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap.
HIANOI, Vietnam — When former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara met the enemy's leading strategist yesterday, he raised a question he'd saved for 30 years: What really happened Aug. 4, 1964 in the Tonkin Gulf?
Both sides agree that North Vietnam attacked a U.S. Navy ship Aug. 2 in the gulf as it cruised close to shore. But it was an alleged second attack two days later that propelled America deep into war.
Many U.S. historians long have believed the Johnson administration fabricated the second attack to win congressional support for widening the war. But for McNamara, Giap's word was the clincher.
"It's a pretty damned good source," he said after the meeting.
As defense secretary from 1961-68
under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, McNamara was one of the leading proponents of U.S. support for South Vietnam against the Communist North. But he left office convinced the war was doomed, he said, revealing his change of heart in memoirs published this year.
McNamara came to Hanoi for the first time to ask the Vietnamese to take part in a conference of top Vietnam War decision-makers. The New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, which is organizing the gathering, says it would be an opportunity to share archival materials and correct the historical record.
McNamara, 79, emerged from the meeting describing it as extraordinary and saying he was struck by the lack of hostility.
McNamara said the conference would help nations learn how to avoid such conflicts in the future.
Giap and Vietnamese officials said they would give the conference serious consideration.
"To this day I don't know what happened on August 2 and August 4, 1964, in the Tonkin Gulf," he said to Giap. "Did what we thought was an attack on August 4, 1964, the so-called second attack — did it occur?"
McNamara wasted little time in raising a question that clearly had bothered him for decades.
Giap replied, "On the fourth of August, there was absolutely nothing."
McNamara later quoted Glap as saying he believed U.S. surveillance ships were trying to provoke an attack so President Johnson would have an excuse to step up U.S. involvement.
McNamara, speaking later to reporters, disputed that interpretation: "That point that Giap made is absolutely without foundation."
Johnson quickly won congressional approval of the Tonkin Gulf resolution authorizing him to take necessary measures to repel attacks on U.S. forces. The first U.S. combat troops landed in South Vietnam seven months later.
McNamara said the administration believed the second attack had taken place and that it had to respond forcefully.
$ 350 Adult Before    Hearing    Dial
ADM P.M.    Impaired Sleep