Stockman Now Sees Deficit of $230 Billion

In a confusing round of budget rhetoric, Budget Director David A. Stockman told House Republicans Friday that the deficit could be headed for as high as $230 billion next year--$5 billion higher than previously estimated.

Stockman said also that the Reagan Administration is asking for a 6.4% increase in defense spending, rather than the 5.7% estimate that Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger had given the Republicans the day before.

The budget director is the latest in a parade of Administration officials briefing Republicans on Capitol Hill this week. He said that new projections indicate lower-than-expected federal revenues, which could increase the deficit, according to Rep. Ed Zschau (R-Los Altos), who attended the closed session.

Stockman said that Weinberger had accidentally used outdated figures in his calculations of the defense spending increase, Zschau said.

Weinberger had met with the Republicans on Thursday and encountered strong resistance to the Pentagon budget increases that he has requested.

Assistant House Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) told reporters after the meeting Friday that the Administration believes it can cut $50 billion off the projected deficit for next year--a figure that Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker has said is the minimum needed to reduce interest rates. However, Lott warned that meeting that goal will require the elimination of some programs, not just freezing them.

“You’re going to have to make some tough . . . choices” in addition to the across-the-board freeze

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Times staff writers Beth Botts and Zack Nauth contributed to this story.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- that many on Capitol Hill are advocating, he told reporters. But Lott and other Republican officials agreed that a tax increase, which President Reagan has pledged to avoid, is not one of the tough choices being considered.

Meanwhile, former President Gerald R. Ford said at a news conference Friday that a one-year tax increase is necessary “to get us over the hump.”

“I think, in all honesty, you’ve got to anticipate there’s going to be some increase (in taxes) on the short-term basis,” he said.

In addition, Ford advocated stretching out Reagan’s four-year defense spending plan over six years, cutting back on foreign aid and slowing the growth rate of domestic programs to 4% or less.

In a separate news conference, Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), a leading advocate of simplifying taxes, said that tax reform could generate $25 billion.