Reagan Prods Congress to Finish Its Work

A rambunctious Congress, prodded by President Reagan to do his bidding, labored today over a landmark deficit-reduction plan and year-end spending legislation and struggled to save his cherished tax overhaul proposal from oblivion.

“He told us to finish our work,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas said after legislative leaders met with Reagan at the White House.

“Everybody was friendly. Somebody wished him a merry Christmas. And he sort of hinted he’d be glad when we were gone.”

Despite the evident good cheer around the polished mahogany table in the White House Cabinet Room, Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R-Ore.) said “nothing” was agreed upon. And House Republican leaders continued to rebel against Reagan’s call to vote for a Democratic tax overhaul bill later this week as a “first step,” noting that it can be substantially revised next year in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Deficit Agreement Near

Negotiators for the House and Senate were near agreement on the deficit-reduction plan, designed to force a balanced budget by 1991 by triggering automatic cutbacks in defense and domestic programs if Congress does not gradually make the cuts on its own. But White House officials expressed continuing concern about the potential impact on the Administration’s defense build-up.

There was no word whether Reagan would approve the measure, even though he supported an earlier version. The deficit-reduction blueprint is attached to legislation needed by midweek to extend the government’s borrowing authority.