CAPITAL GAINS PLAN DETAILED\Administration said to favor cut to 20%.

Byline: Dave Skidmore Associated Press 

The Clinton administration is discussing cutting the top capital gains tax to 20 percent and virtually eliminating the tax on the sale of homes, Republicans close to the budget talks said Thursday.

The administration plan - far less sweeping than the provisions in the vetoed Republican budget legislation - would cost roughly $9 billion over seven years and would become effective the middle of this month, said the Republicans, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The disclosure came a day after a GOP cancellation of a White House bargaining session cast doubt over future budget talks between President Clinton and Republican leaders. Both sides jockeyed for public support, expressing willingness to get the talks back on track.

"To the Republicans in Congress, let me say again, 'My door is open,' " Clinton said.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., responded, "It's nothing but a revolving door." He said Clinton had rejected GOP offers repeatedly.

In an interview on CNN, however, Dole appeared to signal what he wanted the administration to concede next. He said the administration's capital gains plan - raised in Oval Office discussions several weeks ago - had "some merit." He did not describe it, but called it an offer.

Many congressional Democrats - led by House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., - adamantly oppose cutting capital gains taxes, describing it as a giveaway to the rich.

Administration officials, citing their promise to keep budget talks with Republicans confidential, refused to describe their capital gains plan but they did not deny the details Republicans reported.

But they stressed that the plan was just an idea and that the administration would support it only as part of an overall budget deal it found acceptable.

"They (the budget negotiators) spoke of many ideas in the Oval Office, from capital gains to increasing the minimum wage, that could serve as pieces of a potential deal," a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But these were ideas being discussed, not formal offers from either side."

Meanwhile, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, in a whirlwind fund-raising campaign through North Carolina, told reporters Clinton's reluctance to accept a budget with a substantial tax cut could push the country into a recession.

"I think we need tax relief for working families to avoid a recession," Gingrich, R-Ga., said in Raleigh. "And if we get a Clinton recession, let him explain why he refused to lower taxes on working American families."