Bush Promotes Spending Cuts : Business Leaders Lend Support to Program

Vice President George Bush and other Administration officials met with business leaders today to build momentum for the deficit-reduction plan President Reagan and senior Republican senators agreed to last week.

It was the first of a series of meetings Bush will chair this week to promote the plan while Reagan vacations at his California ranch.

Bush, budget director David A. Stockman and other White House officials met with representatives of 10 business groups to outline the plan for $52 billion in spending cuts to reduce next year’s projected budget deficit to $175 billion.

“They were preaching to the choir,” said Dirk Van Dongen, president of the National Assn. of Wholesaler-Distributors. “We think it is a very heroic package, as somebody characterized it during the meeting, and we are going to support it right down the line.”

Members of Van Dongen’s group would be affected by provisions of the package that would cut loans to small businesses.

Alexander Trowbridge, president of the National Assn. of Manufacturers, said, “Every one of us (was) feeling that this was the kind of package which met the problem with a solution from all directions.”