President Will Address Nation on Budget

President Reagan will address the nation Wednesday to try to sell budget cuts that would abolish 17 domestic programs such as Amtrak and the Small Business Administration and curb Social Security increases.

It will be Reagan’s first speech from the Oval Office in his second term. The address, at 5 p.m. PST, is scheduled to be broadcast live by NBC, CBS, ABC and the Cable News Network.

Reagan will campaign for the budget package today with a speech to the National Assn. of Realtors.

The flurry of activity comes as a deeply divided Senate prepares to begin voting on the budget plan, a compromise between Reagan and Senate Republican leaders to cut projected spending by $52 billion.

30 to 40 Votes

White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the Senate likely will take 30 to 40 separate votes on individual parts of the package instead of taking a single up-or-down vote on the entire plan, as the Administration had hoped.

Chances for approval of the package “would be very good” on a single up-or-down vote, Speakes said. However, he said, there will be “strong opposition to specific parts” as various lobbying groups work to protect their interests.

The Senate had been scheduled to begin voting on the budget Monday, but it delayed action until Wednesday because of a vote today over aid to anti-government rebels in Nicaragua.

Democrats Plan Fight

Democrats have pledged to try to strip the provision curbing Social Security increases from the budget package and to attempt to restore at least some of the cuts proposed for education, Medicare, Medicaid, Amtrak and farm programs. Many Republicans, nervous about their chances for reelection next year, already have said they want changes in the package.

Meanwhile Monday, Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.), and three other senators unveiled an alternative budget that would rely on $145 billion in higher taxes as well as $234 billion in spending cuts over the next three years to reduce deficits further than the Republican plan.

The proposal includes a one-year freeze in Social Security benefits for all but low-income recipients. Spending on most domestic programs would be frozen, denying Reagan many of the deeper cuts contained in his proposal. Military spending would be held constant with inflation next year, then allowed to rise at an after-inflation rate of 3% in later years.