House OK of Pentagon-Slashing Budget Seen

House Budget Committee Chairman William H. Gray III (D-Pa.) predicted Friday that his panel’s proposal for the fiscal 1987 budget would be approved by the full House next week but maintained that ultimate enactment of its tax hikes hinges on reversing President Reagan’s adamant opposition to such increases.

Meanwhile, the plan--which had been supported by only one of the 13 Republicans on the committee--was assailed by congressional Republicans and the Administration. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said that the defense cut recommended by the House committee is “irresponsible and totally unrealistic,” and White House Budget Director James C. Miller III declared that the overall package “is clearly not acceptable.”

Separate Tax Legislation

Even if the proposed budget is approved by the House, it would require separate legislation to enact the taxes, Gray told reporters, and “it’s going to take presidential support to get those revenues.”

An aide to the House Democratic leadership, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, agreed: “We’re doing this in a beginning phase of a budget, but we will not lock this in without House Republicans.”

A vote for the plan would put Democrats on record in favor of a tax increase--a situation that House Democratic leaders had pledged to avoid without assurances of Republican support, which appears unlikely to materialize.

The White House objects to the plan on two fronts: It would cut $35 billion from the amount President Reagan had requested for military spending, bringing it below the level spent this year, and it would raise $7.3 billion more in taxes than Reagan had suggested. Further, it rejects most of the deep domestic cuts that the Administration requested.

The Administration had been equally critical of the budget proposal approved a week earlier by the GOP-led Senate, which would raise an equivalent amount of taxes but allow defense spending to grow at least enough to keep up with inflation. The President had requested an 8% after-inflation hike in the Pentagon budget.

‘Insult to Injury’

“The budget resolution which was approved yesterday by the House Budget Committee Democratic majority adds insult to the injury already occurring in the budget process,” Miller said in a statement released by the Office of Management and Budget.

“Many think the Senate went too far when it reduced defense spending authority to $301 billion,” Dole said. “But the House’s $285-billion level is irresponsible and totally unrealistic.”

Similarly, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) said the House defense figure was so low that it would hamper negotiations in a House-Senate conference committee that would have to reconcile differences between the Senate plan and the budget eventually approved by the House.

But Gray defended the figure in his committee’s budget and insisted that it would not require cutbacks in troop levels, daily operations or maintenance. But he conceded that the figure might mean cutbacks in such areas as weapons procurement and research and development.

Not all of the criticism of the committee budget is likely to come from Republicans. The House Democratic leadership aide conceded that “there’s grumbling” from appropriations subcommittee chairmen, who object to the restraint it would place on domestic programs, and from some conservative Democrats, who agree with Republicans that the plan’s defense levels are too low.

Deficit Reduction

The overall budget proposal, which would allow for roughly $1 trillion in government spending, would reduce next year’s projected deficit by almost $40 billion, to about $137 billion.