Reagan Calls for Public support of Deficit Cuts : Says Proposal Will Forestall ‘Painful Hardship,’ Urges Pressure on congress as Senate Vote Nears

President Reagan, in a forceful television appeal Wednesday night for bipartisan support for his controversial deficit-reduction package, called it “our best assurance of avoiding painful hardship down the road.”

In struggling to save the $52-billion plan, which has been under heavy attack by special interest groups and members of both parties, Reagan declared that the nation stands at a “crossroads” and appealed for public pressure on Congress.

“The hour is late, the task is large and the stakes are momentous,” he said. “I ask you to join us in making your voices heard in the Senate this week and later in the House. Please tell your senators and representatives by phone, wire or Mailgram that our future hangs in the balance--that this is no time for partisanship--and that our future is too precious to permit this crucial effort to be picked apart, piece by piece, by special interest groups. We’ve got to put the public interest first.”

‘We’re Closing In’

With the GOP-controlled Senate scheduled to vote on the overall budget package tonight, Administration officials said that they hope Reagan’s speech will stir enough public pressure to achieve a victory. Budget Director David A. Stockman said Wednesday night: “It’s close, but we’re closing in on the target.”

But Senate Minority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.), who gave the Democratic response to the President’s pitch, vowed to fight against crucial parts of Reagan’s budget plan because it would “drive us to the international poorhouse.”

“To be blunt about it, the President has not offered a solid financial foundation for America’s future,” Byrd said. “His program short-changes the future by seriously undermining medical and scientific research.”

But Reagan, who ran in 1980 on a pledge to balance the budget--but who barely mentioned during his 1984 reelection campaign that the government had piled up record deficits during his first term--said that the one thing the nation “cannot do is stay on the immoral, dead-end course of deficit spending.”

During Reagan’s first four years in office, federal deficits have totaled $600 billion. The estimate for the current year is that red ink will reach $227 billion if changes are not made in spending plans.

“Tonight,” the President said, “I am asking all of you--Democrats, Republicans and independents--to give me your help to put our financial house in order so that our tax, spending and monetary policies will not hinder growth, but encourage it; not send inflation and interest rates shooting back up, but keep them heading down, and not drown us under a tidal wave of debt, but protect us in the safe harbor of financial security, with a sound and powerful economy.”

At one point, Reagan reminded his listeners of President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to America in 1961: “Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.”

“In those days,” the President said, “federal spending was only a fraction of what it is today. Since then, government programs have grown to the point where they touch almost half the families in America. Today, his question is more relevant than before.”

Senate Debating Issue

Only hours before the speech, the Senate began debate on the budget plan, a compromise between the President and GOP Senate leaders aimed at slashing $300 billion from projected deficits over the next three years. But the plan would merely provide guidelines for actual spending legislation for the next three years, and its adoption alone would not shave a dime from massive deficits.

Stockman told reporters that it is “critical” for the Administration to win the Senate vote and added that the Administration is “throwing everything into” its lobbying effort.

“Nobody has the votes (for the budget) at this time,” Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) said after one Republican Senate strategy session Wednesday.

In his speech, Reagan emphasized that the budget reductions would be across the board and contended that the biggest and most controversial item in the budget, defense spending, would be cut by $100 billion over three years--for about one-third of the total budget reductions.

But the compromise would still permit a 3% increase in defense spending beyond an inflation rate expected to hover near 4%. That would be less than Reagan’s original request--6% in after-inflation growth for next year and 8% for the next two--but many Democrats and some Republicans have argued that the increase is still too large at a time when Reagan is proposing deep cuts in domestic programs.

Reagan Draws the Line

The President pledged to “draw the line” on any demands in the Senate for further cuts in defense spending and declared that federal overspending is not caused by meeting vital security needs.

He alluded to recent news accounts of waste in the Defense Department that have been cited by critics of the defense budget and said that waste and fraud are being eliminated and that any violators of the law will be prosecuted.

“The stories you’ve been reading and hearing about, $400 hammers and such, are things that we have discovered were going on before and that we’re correcting,” he said. “Padding of expense accounts, overcharging for weapons, profiteering at the expense of the public--these should be, and will be, prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Cites Cost of Amtrak

Reagan cited several of the 17 federal programs that would be eliminated by the budget plan. Amtrak, he said, was begun in 1971 for a two-year trial run with assurances that it would soon turn a profit.

“Fourteen years and nearly $9 billion later,” he said, “Amtrak is still running on taxpayer subsidies. Every time a train leaves the station, it costs taxpayers $35 for each passenger on board. In some cases, it would be cheaper just to hand them plane tickets. Eliminating Amtrak will save $8 billion over the next decade.”

He mentioned also abolishing taxpayer subsidies to some of America’s largest corporations through Export-Import Bank loans and Small Business Administration lending programs. If such programs cannot be cut, he said, “we might as well give up hope of ever getting government spending under control.”

The President suggested that, if Congress does not want to support the spending reductions, it should at least “give me what 43 governors already have--a line-item veto,” which would allow him to veto individual items in omnibus spending bills. “Then I’ll make the cuts; I’ll take the responsibility--and the heat,” he said. “And I’ll enjoy it.”

After saying that the burden would not be great “if all of us help carry the load,” Reagan noted that 46 million Americans who receive a federal retirement, veterans’ or Social Security check would be asked to accept annual benefit increases of 2 percentage points less than inflation--but with a guarantee of at least a 2% increase.

In reiterating his opposition to any tax increase, which some Republicans as well as Democrats say may be necessary to reduce the deficit, Reagan said: “Not surprisingly, some still want to raise your taxes.”