House OKs $1.1-Trillion Spending Plan

The House, acting with unprecedented bipartisan harmony, Wednesday approved a $1.1-trillion federal spending blueprint providing for no new taxes and a modest reduction in the budget deficit.

The 319-102 vote to pass the measure, which carries out an agreement reached by leaders of Congress and the Reagan Administration last November, contrasted sharply with the partisan wrangling that marked almost every previous House debate on tax-and-spend issues since Congress established its current budget-writing procedures in 1974.

“It was a love feast,” said one veteran Capitol Hill observer as Democrats and Republicans exchanged flowery compliments instead of the usual verbal brickbats.

“We’ve got a miracle,” said Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.).

Market Crash the Key Factor

The precipitating factor was the stock market crash of last Oct. 19, which focused national and international concern on the fast-rising federal deficit and led to the protracted negotiatio1853038690that produced November’s agreement on budget targets.

A total of 92 Republicans joined 227 Democrats in support of the resolution, while 78 GOP members and 24 Democrats opposed it.

The Senate is expected to adopt its own version of a budget by mid-April, and the two houses may be able to agree on a compromise budget by early May. That would clear the way for adoption of appropriations bills before the next fiscal year begins in October and avert the need for another mammoth, catchall money bill to keep the government operating in the new year.

Skeptics in the House, however, said that the budget approved Wednesday simply would put off the tough decisions on reducing the deficit until after the election in November of a new President who may have other tax and spending priorities.

‘Dance of Immobility’

Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.) said that Congress and the White House are engaged in a “dance of immobility” to delay hard choices until next year on how to reduce red-ink spending.

Rep. Don J. Pease (D-Ohio) warned: “If we endorse these rosy economic projections, we’ll only be kidding ourselves. Eventually we’ll have to face the federal deficit music.”

The election-year budget would tighten most domestic and military spending but allow an 8.4% increase for education--double the President’s request--and boost spending for AIDS research, the space program and the drive against drug abuse.

Like Reagan’s plan, the House resolution would not tamper with Social Security benefits and it omitted a cut in Medicare that the President had recommended.

Civilian and military employees would get a 3% pay raise as of Jan. 1, but government agencies would have to find reductions to offset half of the cost.

Benefits Programs Shielded

Overall, the budget would require a 1% cut from current spending levels but benefits programs for the poor would be shielded.

The resolution, adopting the Administration’s economic outlook, projects total spending of $1.098 trillion in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, with revenues of $964.3 billion and a resulting deficit of $134 billion. The estimated deficit for the current fiscal year is $146 billion.

But the less robust economy expected by the Congressional Budget Office--by depressing tax revenues and driving up spending for federal benefits programs for the poor and the unemployed--would add $36 billion to the deficit.

In the absence of further congressional action to trim the deficit, that in turn would trigger the automatic, nearly across-the-board spending cuts required by the Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing law.