Reagan Sets $1-Trillion Budget Plan : Pledges to Battle Democrats Over Record Spending

President Reagan put his signature to the nation’s first trillion-dollar budget proposal Saturday and told taxpayers that it “cuts spending and leaves your family’s paycheck alone.”

Americans will get their first look at the President’s recommendations Monday morning, when the $1.02-trillion blueprint of his spending priorities for federal programs in the fiscal year that begins next Oct. 1 is formally presented.

By that time, Reagan is scheduled to be undergoing prostate surgery. He will enter the Bethesda Naval Medical Center today for a procedure to determine whether there has been a recurrence of colon cancer that was removed in July, 1985. After Monday’s surgery to relieve discomfort caused by an enlarged prostate gland, he is expected to be hospitalized for several days.

Takes Combative View

But Reagan used his weekly radio address Saturday to offer a combative view of the coming budget battles with the Democrat-controlled 100th Congress, vowing to fight any effort to raise taxes, trim defense spending or enact environmental legislation intended to clean up the nation’s water supply at a price he considers too high.

He vetoed a water bill on Nov. 6, declaring it too costly. He said Saturday he was “disappointed to hear” the declaration of the new Democratic congressional leaders that such legislation was their top priority.

“I’m in favor of clean water, but the only thing clean in this bill is its name,” he said. “It spends billions more than is needed. If the Democratic leadership decides to push this bill, they’ll be sending a clear signal that they’ve sided with those who want to raise your taxes and take the lid off spending.”

Passed Without Dissent

The legislation that Reagan vetoed after Congress adjourned last year had been passed by the House and Senate without dissent, and congressional leaders said immediately after the veto that it would be reintroduced when the 100th Congress reconvenes Tuesday.

The measure would have strengthened the Clean Water Act of 1971, and Reagan complained that the $18 billion it would have spent on sewage treatment grants was three times the $6 billion he recommended.

The President spent Saturday at the White House after returning Friday evening from a year-end vacation in the Palm Springs area.

When asked as he boarded Air Force One on Friday what kind of year 1987 would be, the President, buffetted by the Democratic victories in the congressional elections and the Iran arms scandal, called back: “Better than ’86.”

But, for the first time since taking office six years ago, Reagan is facing a House and Senate in which the Democrats hold a majority of seats. After declaring his willingness to work with them, he also signaled in his Saturday radio speech a readiness to do battle, saying: “You can’t have it both ways. You cannot decry deficits and then pass budget-busting legislation.”

Rep. Jim Wright (D-Tex.), the new House Speaker, has insisted that it is up to the Democratic leadership to solve the continuing deficit problem. He declared last month that “it’s a mathematical impossibility” for the deficit to be reduced unless the defense buildup, already stalled, is trimmed further or more revenue is raised from taxes, or a combination of the two courses is achieved.

He recommended that until the deficit problem is solved, the planned reduction of the top marginal tax rate, from 38% to 28% after 1987, be postponed.

Although there has been no groundswell among Democrats to increase taxes, Reagan said some in Congress would “rather raise our taxes than cut their spending.”

“Well, not if I have anything to say about it,” he said. “This budget cuts spending and leaves your family’s paycheck alone.”

$312 Billion for Defense

Reagan’s broad-brush preview of the budget for fiscal 1988 offered no details. But the budget will include a plan for spending $312 billion on defense--up from the approximately $289 billion appropriated in the current year.

“With this budget, we’ll give defense a modest but important boost, the minimum I believe is necessary to ensure America’s peace and security,” Reagan said.

At the same time, he said, increased spending is being planned for the elderly, for law and drug enforcement, for research into acquired immune deficiency syndrome, for health care and for air traffic safety.

The President’s budget proposals have faced sharp criticism in the past--even with Republicans in the majority in the Senate--and the current proposal, even before it has been submitted, has encountered difficulties.

Sen. George J. Mitchell of Maine, delivering a prerecorded response by the Democrats to Reagan’s remarks, said the “Democrats want to work with the President to reduce the budget deficit,” but that economic problems can be solved “only if we have restraint in all areas of government spending,” which would include defense outlays.

Opposes Carrier Plan

Rep. William L. Dickinson of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, has taken issue with a plan to include $6.9 billion to begin work on two aircraft carriers that would not see service until the next century.

He said in a letter to Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger that if reports about the military budget are correct, “the Defense Department is prepared to make large reductions in conventional capability, especially that provided by the Army, in favor of strategic and naval force projection systems.”