What Will Be Cut? Congress Asks Bush

President Bush prodded the Democratic-controlled Congress Tuesday to start negotiations on a compromise budget package, but key lawmakers demanded more details on the President’s proposed cuts in domestic programs before beginning serious talks.

Budget Director Richard G. Darman, appearing later before the Senate Budget Committee to echo Bush’s plea, came under sharp Democratic attack but warned that a prolonged stalemate over a federal spending plan is “fraught with risk,” adding: “Although the real economy remains strong, interest rates are rising and markets seem less firm than one would wish.”

Talks to Continue

The Democratic chairmen of the Senate and House Budget committees, who attended a White House meeting with Bush, agreed to continue private talks with Darman but complained that they lack the information needed to negotiate.

Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.), Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) and chairmen and ranking Republican members of the budget, appropriations and tax-writing committees sat in on the hourlong talk with Bush less than two weeks after he submitted his $1.16-trillion revised budget.

Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.), head of the Senate Budget panel, said that the Bush budget proposes $10-billion worth of cuts in $136-billion worth of domestic programs but fails to say how they should be carried out.

First Budget Hearing

“Where are the cuts going to come from?” Sasser asked as his committee held the first Senate hearing on the Bush plan. “We don’t know where the cuts are at this point--the Bush Administration has yet to tell us.”

His House counterpart, Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Monterey), said after the White House breakfast meeting that the budget process is on the right track but added: “When does he (Bush) start to make the tough choices? That’s part of the process--to find out what the choices are.”

However, Darman would not be specific about where cuts in domestic programs should be made and only offered options. He said that lawmakers could accept former President Ronald Reagan’s proposed spending level, freeze the outlays at the current level or negotiate with the Administration on a compromise figure.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Sasser told Darman. “The Administration wants a line-item veto but it doesn’t want to give us a line-item budget.”

Discounts Bush Proposal

Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S. C.) said that he does not regard the Bush budget as a serious proposal, telling Darman: “You want us to hurry up to get a two-year budget to get past the next election . . . . You are more Jack-be-nimble than Stockman.”

Hollings’ reference to David A. Stockman, Reagan’s first budget director, who acknowledged that he had manipulated budget figures on behalf of the White House, drew laughter from the audience.

As for the lack of detail in Bush’s plan, Hollings added: “President Bush must think this is a CIA covert operation.” Only “dummy Democrats,” he said, would be willing to enter budget talks with the White House on this basis.

Meeting Called Productive

However, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N. M.), said that the meeting with Bush was productive because “everyone agreed to get on with the negotiating process” rather than delay budget-making decisions for most of the year.

Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N. H.) also had an encouraging word for Darman.

“Every budget sent up here for the past eight years has been pronounced dead on arrival,” Rudman said. “Yours is still quivering, so I guess you’re ahead.”

Democrats heaped criticism on the President’s proposal, however. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N. J.) said that it called for a reduction of $1.2 billion in sewage construction grants, noting: “It doesn’t sound kinder and gentler--it sounds dirtier and harsher.”

Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) said that Bush had failed to present a bold program to attack the budget deficit, estimated at $170 billion for the current fiscal year.

Wants Assault on Deficit

“Basically, he ducked,” Simon said. “The danger is that we are going to do the same thing. I hope we don’t dance at the edges of this deficit but make a real assault on it.”

Federal law requires the deficit, as measured by the Office of Management and Budget, to fall below $110 billion for the fiscal year starting next Oct. 1. A higher figure would trigger an automatic across-the-board reduction in spending, divided equally between domestic programs and defense, known as a sequestration.

When Sasser told Darman that some senators favor sequestration to adoption of the Bush budget because it would provide more total money for domestic programs, Darman said he favors a compromise because it would be less damaging to national security.

“My personal view is that we are very, very likely to reach agreement on a defense reduction program that will reach the (deficit) targets,” Darman said.