Reagan Threatens to Veto Stopgap ’87 Spending Bill

President Reagan on Saturday served notice on Congress that he is ready to veto stopgap budget legislation for the 1987 fiscal year that starts Wednesday if it includes policy proposals and “wasteful boondoggles” that are part of a “spending-spree bill” passed by the Democratic-controlled House.

The President made it plain in his weekly radio talk that he is prepared for a temporary shutdown of the government unless a budget bill satisfactory to him passes Congress before the government’s 1986 fiscal year ends at midnight Tuesday.

When he vetoed a catchall budget bill under similar circumstances in 1981, Congress acted within hours to pass a short-term compromise measure.

“After delaying so long, some in Congress say I should just sign this spending-spree bill, because otherwise the government will be forced to shut down,” Reagan said. “Well, I hope they know where the keys to the building are, because if they don’t act responsibly, I won’t have any choice but to shut it down. If they want to put a real budget together by candlelight, it’s OK by me.”

The legislation in dispute, technically known as a “continuing resolution,” is a device Congress has used with increasing frequency in recent years. Under such resolutions, funding for government programs is continued into a new budget year at levels set in an expiring budget, pending passage of appropriation bills. Although Reagan submitted his budget last Feb. 5, none of the 13 bills required to carry it out has become law.

Defining a continuing resolution as “a kind of Christmas tree hung with pet projects,” Reagan charged the Democratic-led House with an attempt to use the device “to force through policies that they know could not pass otherwise, that do not belong in an appropriations bill.” The House bill includes limitations on executive decisions in the area of arms control.

Calls Charges ‘Hogwash’

The President rejected Democratic attempts to blame budget deficits on tax cuts that he has proposed and supported. Calling such charges “hogwash,” he said: “We don’t have deficits because you’re undertaxed. We have deficits because Congress overspends.”

In a broadcast reply for the Democrats, Rep. William H. Gray III (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, dropped a response to Reagan’s charge into a talk that also included a prediction that Congress will override Reagan’s veto late Friday of a bill mandating economic sanctions to pressure South Africa into ending its apartheid policies.

“There you go again,” said Gray, using a celebrated Reagan catch phrase, “blaming Congress for your fiscal and revenue problems, as if you hadn’t been President for the past six years.”

Declaring that “Congress is moving,” Gray predicted: “We are going to help solve this fiscal crisis your policies have created.”

One solution known to be under discussion would involve enactment of a short-term continuing resolution that would, in effect, extend current spending levels for a few days into the new fiscal year. If it works as it did in 1981, the device would allow time for development of a compromise acceptable to the White House and Congress.

Seen as Harming Military

Reagan protested that provisions in the $562-billion catchall bill that squeaked though the House on Thursday night “would pull the rug out from under our negotiators at the arms control talks with the Soviets,” would hurt defense programs and cut “essential pay raises for our military personnel” as it authorizes “wasteful boondoggles.”

It is up to the Republican-controlled Senate, Reagan said, “to remove the most objectionable parts of the House bill so we can keep operating.”

The Senate is expected to start floor action Monday on a $556-billion continuing resolution approved Friday by its appropriations committee. The measure comes nearer than that of the House to meeting Reagan’s goals of increases in military spending and curtailment on the civilian side.