White House Seeks Budget Movement

In a bid to revive its stalled budget talks with Republicans, the White House proposed about $18 billion of additional Medicare savings during a closed-door bargaining session on Capitol Hill. Although no decisions were reached, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) characterized the 3 1/2-hour session as “a healthy meeting, a good one, a solid one.” The issue of how much to cut from future Medicare spending and how to apportion the economic pain is central to the budget negotiations.