Congress Gets Ultimatum on Gramm-Rudman Rider

The Reagan Administration, in a threat to Congress, said today that it would shut the government down Nov. 14, causing “pain and suffering” across the land, if House Democrats do not agree to a Republican measure to require a balanced federal budget.

Budget Director James Miller told reporters at the White House that refusal by House Democratic conferees by the end of this week to accept the Senate-passed Gramm-Rudman amendment requiring deep cuts in the deficit on a five-year timetable “threatens our international reputation and disturbs financial markets on which we depend to refinance the national debt.”

Miller ruled out another temporary extension of the debt ceiling until the political hot potato can be resolved. He also said the Administration would not remove the amendment and try to have a “clean” debt extension passed because “I’m not sure we could get it next year.”

Stern Measures

Miller said President Reagan is prepared to take Draconian action “to minimize the adverse impact of this inordinate delay.

“If nothing is done before the 14th, and the Congress has not acted, then there would be an orderly shutdown of the entire government and the stopping of checks going to almost everyone. We do not want government checks to bounce.”

Miller said Reagan already has authority to postpone or cancel spending authority already enacted by Congress and could shut down entire agencies and stop payments to government contractors.

Miller said that the Social Security Trust Fund will have to be dipped into in the next few days to pay benefits and that the “drop-dead date” of Nov. 14 would see a government shutdown unless the conferees act by this weekend.

Sort of a ‘Smorgasbord’

“There is a smorgasbord of opportunities there . . . not opportunities, but a smorgasbord of things the President will have to look at . . . if he felt that he might have to be forced to move forward . . . to minimize the adverse impact of closing the government down,” Miller said.

He said the Nov. 14 default date could delayed several weeks, “but let me tell you in order for that to happen, there would be a lot of pain and suffering, and we want to avoid that.”

Miller ruled out as a possibility last week’s Administration threat to sell U.S. gold to finance the debt.