SPEAKING OF TAX CUTS

Alice Rivlin, the Clinton Administration's budget director, said today that incoming House SpeakerNewt Gingrich's avowed tax-cutting planwould send the federal deficit through the roof and shove the economy into a recession. "If we had a big tax cut right now and people were spending more, the inflation danger would be much more real than it is now," Rivlin told reporters. "You'd have rapid increases in interest rates, and probably throw the economy into a recession." Republicans fired back: Rep. John Kasich (R-Ohio) said any GOP tax cut would be offset by spending cuts, and tweaked Rivlin for partisanship. "I think she needs to take a chill pill," he said.