Reagan to Press Austerity Budget : Plans Seven Appearances to Show Proposal Is Not Politically Dead

Determined to dispel rumors that his fiscal 1987 budget is politically dead even before he sends it to Capitol Hill, President Reagan is launching an ambitious schedule of personal appearances to underscore his commitment to leaving defense spending intact, ruling out a tax increase and reducing the deficit largely through cuts in social spending.

Although the Administration’s budget will not be officially disclosed until next Tuesday, its major themes will form the basis of the President’s annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress tonight.

Reagan is expected to portray his unusually austere budget in optimistic terms, issuing moral imperatives, or “charges,” to Congress and his Cabinet to embrace the steep decline in domestic spending as a necessary cure for the nation’s deficit ills.

To Visit Printing Office

In the days immediately after the speech, Reagan will make seven appearances outside the White House, including a visit to the Government Printing Office, which is preparing his budget for publication. He will be the first President since Abraham Lincoln to visit the agency.

“If anyone had any doubts as to the President’s support for this budget, we think his public schedule should put all that to rest,” White House spokesman Rusty Brashear said.

Meanwhile, the White House Office of Management and Budget estimated that the 1987 budget deficit will be $12 billion less than originally projected, as a result of cuts mandated this fiscal year under the new Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law.

The Administration, which had been estimating the 1987 deficit at $194 billion, has scaled that figure back to $182 billion because of what officials term “technicalities” regarding the impact of 1986 cuts on subsequent years.

“A perfect example is UDAG (urban development action grants),” one Administration official said. “The savings you achieve in the first year may not be large, but in the following years it adds up fast.”

Skepticism in Congress

Thus, Reagan would only have to come up with $38 billion in cuts, instead of roughly $50 billion, to meet the Gramm-Rudman target of a $144-billion deficit next year--a calculation that was greeted by considerable skepticism in Congress.

In a meeting with reporters, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) suggested that the Administration was basing its revised figures on an overly rosy economic forecast. “How did they do it--goose up the growth?” he asked.

A White House official acknowledged that the estimate made it “less difficult” to meet the Gramm-Rudman target. But he insisted that the computer calculations are legitimate and do not reflect any basic readjustments.

The Administration already is at odds with Congress over basing its budget assumptions on a 4% growth rate, which congressional leaders contend is not achievable in the face of existing economic evidence.

After the State of the Union speech, Reagan will visit the Treasury and Health and Human Services departments Wednesday to carry his message personally to presidential appointees. While at the Health and Human Services Department, he will meet with his Domestic Policy Council, which is headed by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III.

Administration officials hope that those appearances will help dramatize Reagan’s pledge that the social “safety net” protecting the disadvantaged will not be disrupted by his proposed cuts.

On Thursday, Reagan will travel to suburban Alexandria, Va., to speak to students at Thomas Jefferson High School, a public school noted for its high-tech curriculum and equipment. The visit is expected to give Reagan a chance to reinforce another major theme of his State of the Union speech, the American entrepreneurial spirit and the futuristic new frontiers it can unlock.

Mending Political Fences

The President will mend some political fences Friday when he goes to Capitol Hill for lunch with House Republicans, who were at the vanguard of an embarrassing tax-revision revolt late last year.

Reagan will cap his budget blitz with the visit to the Government Printing Office next Tuesday, where he will be the lead speaker in a briefing for reporters on the long-awaited budget document.

“There are some in this town who will underestimate this budget and my intention to support it,” Reagan told an audience of business and trade association representatives at the White House Monday. “That’s all right. I got used to being underestimated all the way back in 1966, when I first ran for governor of California.”

Warns on Defense Cuts

In another theme expected to be emphasized in tonight’s State of the Union speech, Reagan warned the businessmen that further cuts in defense spending “would cripple our hopes for successful arms talks with the Soviets, and we can’t permit this.”

He told congressional leaders last week that defense cutbacks could negatively affect his second summit session with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev later this year.

Times Staff Writer Karen Tumulty contributed to this story.