HOUSE PASSES "CONTRACT" CUTS

The House Republican majority won a 227-200 vote to slice $17 billion from federal programs, ranging from public housing to public broadcasting, then pushed $100 billion more in reductions through a divided budget committee as a way of funding tax cuts. Calling today's cuts "irresponsible and mean-spirited," White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta immediately promised that President Clinton would veto the legislation. The $100 million package, expected to pass the House by month's end, would help fund $190 billion in tax cuts over five years, most of them for a $500 per child tax credit for families earning under $200,000. But TIME congressional correspondent Karen Tumulty notes that the GOP has avoided saying which programs would be hit. She adds that the bill -- a key part of the "Contract With America" -- might follow the balanced-budget amendment to the Senate graveyard: "Even among Republicans in the Senate, a lot of people are saying we shouldn't be cutting taxes when we're trying to reduce the deficit."