Regan Budget Speech Angers GOP Leaders

Senate Republican leaders angrily denounced White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan on Friday for criticizing Congress while legislators struggled to revive stalled budget talks and agree on a compromise deficit-reduction plan.

“We can’t do it without Ronald Reagan; we could probably do it without Don Regan,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“Don Regan apparently thinks that he ought to get into this budget fight,” Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) said in remarks to be broadcast today on Cable News Network. “If that’s his effort . . . then he sure hasn’t been helpful, and the efforts, in my opinion, are calculated to bring Congress further away from getting a budget.”

Podium-Thumping Attack

Dole and Domenici were referring to Regan’s podium-thumping attack Thursday on Congress for failing to come to grips with cutting federal spending. Regan had said the budget deadlock on Capitol Hill was “ridiculous.”

Domenici raised the possibility that Congress may have to go without a budget this year and fight over individual pieces of legislation to achieve savings.

“There’s enough blame to reach around to everyone” for lack of progress on the budget, Dole said.

The House-Senate budget talks recessed Wednesday in acrimonious disagreement. The negotiations have been at a virtual stalemate for about six weeks.

Although Dole said the Senate will draw up a new outline to trim the deficit, Budget Committee sources said the plan probably will not differ much from previous offers, all of which have been rejected by House negotiators.

Line-Item Veto

In another action Friday, Dole attempted for a second time to break the filibuster blocking work on legislation to give Reagan line-item veto authority. Despite a letter from the President, Dole fell three votes short of choking off a filibuster by senators who say the constitutional balance of power would be upset if the President could veto individual portions of spending bills.

Dole filed a petition to set another debate-limiting vote Tuesday.