Budget Bystander

“Tell it to the Marines,” President Reagan says to those who advocate reductions in his unrealistic $320-billion defense budget, rejected by Congress months ago. His folksy but irrelevant suggestion came in a little talk to Marine recruits at Parris Island, S.C. Whenever Reagan leaves the capital, he jokes about escaping the fantasyland inside the Capital Beltway and getting out into the country where real people live real lives.

This time, however, the real work of meeting the nation’s needs is being done by Congress with little assistance from the White House. The dogged Republican chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), is attempting to move the White House off its no-tax-increase dogma, even though the President’s original budget already opened the door with about $6 billion in new revenues. A House leader suggested that the House-Senate conference committee on the budget give Domenici time to do “missionary work” down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

What does it take to persuade the White House that the only way to continue the military buildup is to pay for it? Perhaps a re-reading of the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law would help. Unless the President is willing to do some negotiating, Gramm-Rudman will force automatic budget cuts that could slash defense spending levels far below what Reagan is likely to get from the House and Senate conferees. The Gramm-Rudman clock is ticking. Its mechanisms start clicking into place in August.

Congress has had the same problem with the White House on the foreign-aid budget, prompting Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.) to comment, “They aren’t willing to make any choices.” David A. Stockman has tried to deliver the same message.

Leadership involves making choices. This is something that the Marines could tell President Reagan.