White House Acts to Avoid Budget Clash : Fitzwater Says Proposal Omitted Cuts to Prevent Confrontation With Congress

The White House said today that its failure to provide a detailed list of spending cuts in its budget proposals is a deliberate attempt to avoid confrontation with Congress.

“We have all kinds of ideas, but we believe it’s the appropriate role to discuss those with the Congress, not to be giving out lists. We don’t want the budget to be confrontational,” said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater.

“It’s a very determined strategy not to create that kind of situation, but rather to go into this with an open mind and say ‘Let’s work together,’ ” he added when asked about Democratic complaints that President Bush’s budget is lacking in detail.

Pressure on Congress

Some Democrats say Bush, in an address to Congress last Thursday, talked only about areas where he wants to increase spending and left to Congress the unpleasant job of deciding where to make cuts.

“As practitioners, they think it’s rather clever,” one congressional aide said of the lawmakers’ thinking. “But as politicians, they’re leery of a trick. The cuts can be cast as something Congress did, not the President.”

Bush produced a budget document he said would trim the federal deficit from about $163 billion this year to $91 billion in fiscal 1990, beginning Oct. 1. His blueprint included at least $9.6 billion in unspecified cuts to be worked out with Congress.

Fitzwater’s comments came just hours before Budget Director Richard G. Darman and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu opened their second straight day of budget discussions with congressional leaders.

Budget Arriving ‘Alive’

Fitzwater said the White House was pleased by the initial reaction to its budget plan and noted that some newspaper editorials have referred to it as “the first one in a decade to arrive alive” on Capitol Hill.

“And one of the reasons, frankly, is, we’ve got areas to negotiate; we’re willing to work with the Congress on that; we’re willing to discuss these cuts with them,” he added.

Former President Ronald Reagan’s recent budget proposals included long lists of programs targeted for termination, but were largely ignored by Congress.

Despite some grousing, the Democratic leadership in Congress has voiced optimism about the Bush budget.

“I think the White House is being less rigid, more conciliatory (than in the Reagan Administration). I came away with a feeling of optimism that we can make some progress,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.) said after a meeting Monday with Darman.