6 Jlw Daily .Star

WASHINGTON. Mar 2: The pharmaceutical and banking industries, stung by White House criticism and proposed budget cuts, are launching counteroffensives to tell their sides of the story, reports Al*.

Sixty bankers were fanning out across Capitol Hill Tuesday to try to scuttle President Clintons plan to cut them out of the 15 billion dollar guaranteed student loan business, now a source of hundreds of millions of dollar in no-risk

And the drug industry, accused of profiteering by Clinton and allies in Congress, defended itself tn full-page ads running in 40 major newspapers Tuesday at a cost of more

than 500.000 dollar.

The drug makers’ ad was billed as an open letter.to the American people who "have been hearing so much negative criticism of us.”

Clinton gored both industries’ oxen in recent weeks with his deficit-reduction plan and his attack on "shocking price increases that havd driven up the costs of Immunising American children.

The bank lobbyists have fended off past attempts to cut their share of the student loan pie, and they are taking direct alm at proposals by Clinton and lawmakers to deny them a role in dispensing the government-backed loans.