Reagan Praises Budget Resolution, Vows to Cut Excess Spending

President Reagan commended Congress on Saturday for passing a budget resolution that made “a good-faith beginning” toward deficit reduction, then repeated his pledge to review money bills “line by line” to root out unnecessary spending.

In his weekly radio broadcast, delivered from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., Reagan praised Congress for tackling the deficit in “the right way--by reducing what government can spend, rather than simply taking more of what you earn.” Individuals who “insist that spending cannot be cut any further and that we must increase your taxes to reduce the deficit are flat-out wrong,” he said.

That characterization clearly applied to the Senate Republicans who tried and failed to win approval of a budget resolution that included tax boosts and Social Security revisions, both of which the White House opposed. Reagan committed himself against both propositions in last year’s presidential campaign.

Won’t Raise Taxes

“Sometimes,” the President told his listeners, “it’s difficult to remember that you didn’t send us to Washington to feed the alligators. You sent us to drain the swamp. We didn’t come to raise your taxes but to lower them.”

He repeated his warning that “when Congress votes on the various spending bills this fall, we will review each one line by line to be sure they don’t contain excessive spending levels or might jeopardize our national security.” On Friday, Reagan had said that if he does not approve of the provisions of a bill, “I will not hesitate to use my veto pen.”

The budget measure, passed Thursday after months of wrangling, claims deficit reductions of $280 billion over the next three years. The budget deficit for fiscal 1986 alone had otherwise been projected at almost $230 billion.

Responding to the President for the Democrats, Rep. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a member of the House Select Committee on Aging, charged that Reagan’s budget policies were skimping programs for the elderly.