GOP in Senate to Urge More Domestic Cuts

Senate Republican leaders will meet today to consider a budget proposal that would freeze both defense and domestic spending programs next year and impose an additional $36 billion in cuts for domestic programs.

The draft proposal, prepared under the direction of Senate Majority Leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.), would reduce the annual federal deficit, now about $200 billion, to slightly less than $100 billion by 1988.

The proposal, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, would eliminate the cost-of-living adjustment now scheduled for Social Security recipients next January--a measure that President Reagan has refused to support.

“The core of the program is a comprehensive freeze on defense and non-defense programs,” one Senate staff member said. “But we also need to find a lot of other cuts to reach our target.”

Nearly all of those additional cuts are likely to be proposed by Reagan next month in his fiscal 1986 budget.

Like Reagan’s, the Senate GOP plan would eliminate federal support for Amtrak, general revenue sharing for local governments, mass transit subsidies, rural housing programs, the Small Business Administration and direct loans from the Export-Import Bank.

Also, it recommends increasing some Medicare premiums, ending loans for college students from families with incomes above $30,000, cutting farm price supports, selling Conrail, reforming both civil service and military pensions and cutting back on veterans’ health care programs.

However, the Senate GOP plan draws the line against other of Reagan’s expected reductions, such as a 5% pay cut for federal civilian workers and cuts in Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Supplemental Security Income.

In addition, the Republican plan balks at Reagan’s proposals to cut assistance for all levels of education. And it rejects eliminating the work incentive program for welfare families and terminating federal support for bilingual education, legal services and health professionals’ training, according to Senate staff members familiar with the details.

Last week, Senate GOP leaders vowed to develop their own budget plan in advance of the President’s budget, saying that they would aim for a deficit of under $100 billion in 1988, substantially less than the $140 billion that Reagan has indicated he will settle for. As a result, the plan goes beyond the across-the-board freeze that has been advocated by some Senate Republicans and Democrats.

Long Fight Feared

One congressional staff member who has worked for a budget freeze said that the new proposal “totally destroys the political catchiness, fairness and simplicity of a freeze.” By targeting individual programs, he said, the plan will increase the likelihood of a long, drawn-out fight with dozens of interest groups and run into objections from both Democrats and Republicans in the House.

If some individual programs are targeted for deeper cuts than others, he added, “then no one will play ball.”

The Senate GOP plan has received tacit support from Reagan’s budget director, David A. Stockman, and other key White House officials. They told Senate leaders last week that Reagan will fall short of his own initial goal of cutting about $137 billion in spending by 1988 because of his pledge not to propose cuts in Social Security or more than modest limits on his defense buildup.

Housing Loans Targeted

Among the additional programs recommended for cutbacks or elimination under the Senate proposal are subsidized credit for rural electricity, Veteranns Administration and Federal Housing Administration low-interest housing loans, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration space station, public lands acquisition, foreign military sales, the strategic petroleum reserve, federal crop insurance and postal subsidies.

However, the GOP plan considers dozens of other cuts that have been recommended by the Administration as “less desirable.” Among the $12 billion in programs likely to be protected by the Senate Republicans are energy research and conservation, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Mines programs, soil conservation, child nutrition, sewer grants, community services programs, library grants and National Institutes of Health grants.