Reagan Calls Defense Freeze ‘Irresponsible’

President Reagan on Friday angrily accused the Senate of an “irresponsible act” for dismantling his latest budget plan, and Secretary of State George P. Shultz said the senators’ “no-growth” proposal for defense spending could hamper arms negotiations.

White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan said that the President’s advisers would try to mend the shattered package, insisting optimistically: “We don’t think it’s going to come unraveled.”

But the Republican-controlled Senate’s rebellious action in a series of votes this week came at a bad time for Reagan diplomatically.

On Friday, at the annual economic summit conference, the President was pointing to his domestic policies as a model for all democracies and trying to convince U.S. allies that he is about to make progress toward reducing the huge federal deficit, which the other leaders generally blame for high interest rates in the United States.

“Everybody’s wishing the President well and recognizing he has a tough problem on his hands,” Shultz said of the other heads of state.

Reagan, when asked by reporters whether he thought that the Senate’s action had weakened his position at the summit, quickly responded: “No, no.” But he added: “It is an irresponsible act.”

The President twice accused the Senate of “being irresponsible” and insisted that he already had compromised on military spending to the point where further cuts would “reduce our ability to maintain security.”

Sought 6% Real Growth

Reagan originally had proposed a 6% “real growth” increase--after expected inflation of about 4%--in defense spending for the 1986 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Just before starting his Easter vacation, the President compromised with Senate Republican leaders on a 3% after-inflation hike.

The Senate, on a 51-48 vote Thursday night, whittled the proposed increase to the basic rate of inflation, tantamount to a program freeze. The vote would cut the Administration’s military buildup by $17.7 billion over three years.

Shultz, in relating the Senate action to the recessed U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms control talks in Geneva, lamented: “It’s not a desirable development.”

And, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, who was in Nashville, Tenn., to address the National Conference on Foreign Relations, said at a news conference before his speech that the Senate vote “will do a great deal of damage” that will make “substantial cuts in readiness and . . . reduces our ability to acquire what everybody agrees we need.”

Reagan long has argued that a big U.S. military buildup is necessary to persuade the Soviets to bargain seriously.

“The President feels strongly that he has compromised enough and that 3% is the bottom line on defense spending,” White House spokesman Larry Speakes said.

Impact on Weapons Systems

“We are specifically concerned as to what this might mean to major weapons systems and that it could cause some cancellations of some contractural commitments.” He did not elaborate.

The Senate also restored cuts agreed on by Reagan and Senate GOP leaders in cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients, veterans and civil service pensioners.

The package was designed to save $52 billion in the next fiscal year.

The final voting came after Chief of Staff Regan made a half dozen telephone calls from Bonn to key senators in Washington attempting to sway their votes.

“We’re still confident,” he told reporters Friday. “This is not the end.”