Poll Finds Most Reject Gop Plans To Cut Medicare

As Congress opens debate on the budget, most Americans do not believe the GOP will balance the budget by 2002 and they fear Republican plans to cut Medicare, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll released today.

While conceding they do not know much about the Medicare plan, those polled rejected it by a 2-to-1 margin. And they disapproved by a nearly 3-to-1 margin of the tax cuts proposed by the GOP.

Asked if the budget deficit has risen or fallen since Clinton took office, 48 percent said it has risen. Only 21 percent said it had fallen every year for the past three years.

On Wednesday, as debate opened in both houses, Democrats denounced the tax cut proposal and President Clinton reiterated his threat to veto the GOP plan.

The poll was based on random

telephone interviews conducted Sunday through Tuesday with 1,077 adults throughout the country.

Eighty-one percent of those polled said even if the Republican spending plan were enacted, the federal budget would not be balanced by 2002 - as the Congressional Budget Office has said it would.