Battle over the Budget

Clinton’s “triangulation” strategy was an attempt to take control of the budget from the Republicans in Congress. His own balanced budget plan claimed to balance the federal budget without cutting Medicare and Medicaid. “You know whether or not to balance the budget, we can’t win that fight,” says Clinton’s Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers. “Once you accept that we’re going to balance the budget now let’s have a fight about what we’re going to cut and what we’re going to protect. That’s a fight we can win.”