House Kills Reagan Budget, OKs Its Own : President’s ’88 Blueprint Fails on 394-27 Vote

The House today rejected President Reagan’s budget and approved a plan of its own, a Democratic vision of fiscal 1988 with less military spending, stronger domestic programs and higher taxes than Reagan says he will allow.

The Democratic budget was approved by a vote of 230 to 192, receiving no Republican votes.

“We’re going to do what is necessary to move the business of the country forward” and reduce the deficit, declared House Majority Leader Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) “And if we have to do it alone, we will.”

The House earlier overwhelmingly rejected the President’s proposal by a vote of 394-27. Republicans gave Reagan the few “yes” votes he received.

Rep. William H. Gray III (D-Pa.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, opposed the President’s $1-trillion plan but brought it to a vote to put the House--including Republicans--on record against it.

“I’ve introduced this budget because on numerous occasions the President has said it would put us on the best path toward deficit reduction and equity and balance,” he said, daring Republicans to support Reagan.

Political Trick Seen

House Republicans, who refused to help Democrats draft the spending plan and declined to offer a comprehensive package of their own, said forcing a vote on Reagan’s plan was a political trick.

“It’s just a part of the annual spring budget game we’re going through,” said Rep. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), the House minority whip. “This is all a charade.”

Rep. Bill Green (R-N.Y.) said both the Administration and House plans were unacceptable and used phony accounting to claim smaller deficits than would result.

“Both have abdicated their responsibilities by proposals whose actual deficits will come nowhere near the $108-billion (deficit) target mandated by the Gramm-Rudman law despite their representations to the contrary,” he said.

White House spokesman Albert R. Brashear commented: “That was the President’s budget. It met the Gramm-Rudman target; it did not raise taxes, and it did not cut defense spending. That’s still the President’s goal, and it’s up to the Congress now to show how they can do it.”

Dannemeyer Plan Beaten

The House also rejected today, 369 to 47, a proposal by Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) to reduce the deficit with government gold-backed securities and amnesty for income tax cheats.

The Democratic plan claims to reduce the deficit next year by $38 billion but fails by congressional estimates to meet the $108-billion deficit limit of the Gramm-Rudman law. Adopting Reagan’s more optimistic economic scenarios, which show Treasury revenues rising strongly with the economy even without tax boosts, Democrats claimed that they met the targets as the President did.

The House plan includes a call for $18 billion in new taxes and more than $3 billion from fees on users of government services and increased tax enforcement. Reagan’s budget contained less than a third that much in tax revenues.