U.S. SENATE LEADER CALLS FOR INTEREST RATE CUTS
Senate Finance Committee Chairman
Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.) called on major industrial countries to
make a pledge at the coming economic summit in Venice to cut
interest rates.
    "I think at the summit meeting in Venice what we ought to be
trying to do is to get the other major industrial nations that
are involved to bring interest rates down, say, one pct,"
Bentsen told NBC Television's "Meet the Press."
    Bentsen said coordinated rate cuts could take "billions off
the debt service of the Latin countries" and help ease
protectionist pressures in the industrial countries.
    Bentsen also South Korea and Taiwan should be pressured to
revalue their currencies in relation to the U.S. dollar.
    "You take the Taiwanese, with an enormous capital surplus,
enormous trade surplus, and we've had very little cooperation
there," he said.
    Departing Deputy Treasury Secretary Richard Darman told the
same television network he agreed that the U.S. dollar had not
fallen enough against the currencies of some countries.
    "I think that more does have to be done there in
negotiations with the countries involved, the so-called NICs
(newly industrialized countries)," he said.
    Darman said such negotiations with newly industrialized
countries were underway privately.
    Bentsen predicted Congress and the White House would agree
on a fiscal 1988 budget that would raise between 18 and 22
billion dlrs in new revenues.
    The Texas senator said a series of excise taxes would be
considered by Congress, including an extension of the telephone
tax and new levies on liquor and cigarettes.
    Bentsen said he supported an oil import fee, but that it
would not happen without President Reagan's support.
    Darman called for a "top level negotiation" between the White
House and Congress on a budget compromise that would include
asset sales, some excise taxes, cuts in middle-class
entitlement programs, "a reasonable, steady rate of growth in
defense" and reform of the budget process.
 Reuter
