TAX CUTS . . . CLINTON'S $24 BILLION DOWN PAYMENT

President Clinton today endorsed a patchwork of federal budget cuts totaling $24 billion, a first step in backing the Administration's pledge to match the $60 billion tax cut package unveiled last Thursday with reductions in spending. "We must pay for the 'Middle Class Bill of Rights' with new reductions in government spending dollar for dollar," Clinton said. "We have to change yesterday's government." The moves include: turning the Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic control system into a quasi-private corporation (with Federal safety oversight remaining); making the Federal Housing Administration, which guarantees mortgages, another quasi-independent entity; squeezing 60 housing programs into four; and streamlining many Department of Transportation programs into an $11 billion block grant controlled by states. Probably next on the block, White House aides whispered: cutting DOT's staff of 106,000 in half over two years; eliminating money-losing Amtrak's subsidy over five years, cutting in half the Department of Energy's annual budget to $10.6 billion; and scooping about $700 million from HUD's nearly $30 billion budget. Overall, Clinton says he can cut $76 billion from the federal budget over five years -- leaving $16 billion for deficit reduction. Still, about $52 billion of the cuts are unspecified. Aides say most won't take effect until the end of the decade. The incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee, Rep. John Kasich (R-Ohio) said Clinton's plan doesn't go far enough. The Administration "failed to eliminate any departments or agencies," Kasich said. "This administration must do more, and be far more specific." Clinton promised to oppose any cuts that "undermine our economic recovery," hurt the poor, hamper education or curtail environmental protection.