Senate Leaders See Room for Budget Deal : Congress: Both parties voice willingness to reach agreement acceptable to White House. But they also say they plan to stand firm on key issues.

WASHINGTON — Senate leaders on both sides of the battle to pass legislation aimed at a balanced federal budget expressed optimism Sunday that a compromise can be reached that will be acceptable to the White House.

“We’ll get a budget,” said Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.). But the senator urged President Clinton, who has vowed to block the budget legislation passed by the House and Senate last week, to “bring something to the table--something real” that Republican lawmakers might be willing to adopt.

Appearing with Domenici on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.), a committee member, agreed that the President “has to participate; he just can’t stand there and throw stones.”

But while encouraging talks with the White House, Nickles said a key portion of the legislation--a timetable for balancing the budget by the year 2002--is “not really negotiable.”

Clinton said Saturday in his weekly radio address that he would not give in to “extraordinary blackmail” by the Republicans who approved House and Senate budget bills that combine “disastrous” cuts in health care for the elderly and poor with an increase in the national debt limit, which is needed to keep the government running smoothly.

The President, however, insisted that he strongly favors a blueprint for a balanced budget. He said his own budget plan “secures Medicare into the future, increases our investments in education and technology [and] protects the environment.”

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), also appearing on “Meet the Press”, said the President would enter into serious negotiations to resolve the impasse. “We’ll resolve this, but not on the basis of what’s in [the Senate-passed] package,” Dodd said.

Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) added that the Senate budget bill, which would reduce taxes by $245 billion over seven years, “is not realistic if you have a tax cut.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), appearing on CNN’s “Late Edition,” warned that the budget bills’ cuts in the growth of Medicare and proposals for turning over broad new responsibility to the states to care for the poor “would have an enormous effect on California, a state that’s been in recession since 1990.”

Senate and House conferees are scheduled to begin talks today to resolve differences between the House and Senate budget bills. Sessions with White House officials presumably would follow. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) told his constituents during the weekend that Clinton has “about two weeks” to iron out budget differences with Republicans or risk an unprecedented default on the national debt.

Gingrich said Republicans might be willing to modify their plans marginally in order to achieve an agreement with the President. Behind their strategy is a realization that they lack the votes to override a Clinton veto.

Domenici basically agreed with Gingrich, saying the GOP would give “little ground” on the tax cut because “we’ve worked too hard to get here.”

But Nickles said avoiding a default on the national debt was important to Republicans as well as to the White House. “If we have serious negotiations going on that look like they are going to lead to a real solution, we might give a temporary debt extension,” he said.

Kerrey suggested to Domenici that the Republicans should not “negotiate with the President at the moment. Negotiate with congressional Democrats who have already demonstrated a willingness to vote for the very things you say need to occur.”

Kerrey said he was not trying to cut Clinton out, but thought working out an acceptable budget proposal was the job of legislators. Clinton has “given, I think, relatively clear instructions as to what he’s willing to support,” he said.

Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin renewed his call for congressional action on the debt ceiling, saying the issue should be considered separately from the budget bills.

“The full faith and credit of the United States is at stake if we cannot pay our bills by the middle of November,” he said on “Late Edition.” “This has everything to do with meeting prior obligations. It has nothing to do with balancing the budget.”