Bush Steps Up Attacks on Congress for Failure to End Budget Impasse : Deficit: He warns he is prepared to shut down the government again on Friday. He declines to say specifically what financing plan he would support.

President Bush on Monday stepped up his attacks on Congress for the impasse over the federal budget. He warned that he is prepared to shut down the government once more if the lawmakers prove unable to come up with a budget plan that he finds acceptable by Friday.

“This Friday, time’s up,” Bush said, referring to the day that the current stopgap spending authority, which he signed on the Oct. 8 Columbus Day holiday, runs out. “Time is short--the meter’s ticking up there,” he said.

Bush made his remarks as he embarked on a two-day political tour to Texas and the Midwest. He spoke on Monday before a fund-raising luncheon on behalf of Texas GOP gubernatorial candidate Clayton W. Williams Jr.

Bush sidestepped questions about specifically what sort of budget plan he would support, apparently in an effort to avoid new charges that he was “waffling” on the budget issue.

He did say, however, that for the moment, at least, he favors a plan drafted by the Senate Finance Committee that would eliminate a proposed 2-cent-a-gallon tax on home heating oil and would raise federal gasoline taxes by 9 cents a gallon.

“As always, the real problem has been the unwillingness in Congress to vote for holding down spending,” the President said. And, he added, “one thing that appeals to me about the current Senate package is that it holds the line on income-tax rates.”

Bush’s remarks drew an immediate retort from House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.), who warned that Bush is “intimately connected here with what comes forward in the way of a solution to this budget” and “will bear full responsibility” for any government shutdown.

“If the President, on the verge of a campaign swing through the country, is going to try to put a partisan coloration on this, I think it’s both unwise and not productive in getting the budget process concluded,” Foley said. “We shouldn’t be engaging in a political game.”

Meanwhile, the House Republican leadership put the finishing touches on a GOP alternative to a House Democratic budget plan, hoping to win rank-and-file endorsement at a meeting of the House Republican Conference today.

The proposal, which the Republicans have dubbed the “No-New-Taxes” budget plan, would seek to trim the deficit solely by cutting spending, without raising taxes. But it would only save $350 million over five years, not $500 million as the Democrats’ plan would.

The shape of the GOP plan suggested Republican leaders had concluded that their party is too divided to tackle the tax issue and decided instead to return to Bush’s original pledge during the 1988 campaign--which he himself ultimately abandoned--to eschew any new taxes.

“Our people have decided to go back to our roots,” said Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Highland), after emerging from a meeting Monday. “I anticipate the (GOP) conference will react very positively,” he said.

The House is expected to begin voting on both the Democratic and Republican deficit-reduction packages sometime today. With the balloting expected to go heavily along party lines, the Republican plan is considered almost certain to be defeated.

The House plan, designed to appeal primarily to the middle-class, would reduce planned increases in Medicare premiums contained in an earlier bipartisan accord that the House rejected, increase taxes on the rich and eliminate a planned gasoline tax increase.

The Senate proposal, which Bush has said he favors, would provide for somewhat higher increases in Medicare premiums, raise gasoline taxes by 9 1/2 cents a gallon and impose less-onerous tax increases on the rich.

The New York Times reported in today’s editions that the Senate Finance Committee has adopted a tax provision that would give donors a tax break for gifts of artworks and manuscripts. The provision would benefit not only museums and libraries, but also wealthy donors.

The paper quoted tax experts as saying the change would cost the Treasury relatively little, estimated to be in the millions of dollars over five years.

Last Tuesday, the President indicated that he would consider a trade of lower capital gains taxes for higher income taxes. But he backed away hours later after hearing strong complaints from key Senate Republicans.

Then, on Friday, he indicated to a group of House Republicans that he would support a sharp cut in tax rates on capital gains--long a goal of his--in exchange for offering his support for an increase in income tax rates for the very rich.

But he retreated within an hour or so, saying that, while he favored such an approach, he would not advance it because it had little chance of gaining approval in Congress.

Asked by reporters aboard Air Force One what sort of compromise he might support on income taxes, Bush replied:

“I’m not going to say now. I’m not going to say what I will or won’t do. That managed to get a little confused last week, so what I’ll do is say the action’s in Congress And I will take a look at what comes out.

“I think it’s best this week to just keep the focus--it is the Congress that has the action. And the American people seem to understand by significant numbers that it’s up in the Congress and it’s the Congress to blame,” Bush said.

Indeed, with congressional elections approaching, polls have indicated a wide dissatisfaction with the performance of Congress, as well as with that of the President.

Approximately four weeks before the Nov. 6 elections, one poll conducted last week, for the New York Times and CBS News, found that 60% of those surveyed disapproved of the way Congress was doing its job and 27% approved.

However, when asked who would make better decisions about reducing the federal budget deficit, 24% chose Bush and 55% picked Congress.

In effect, after two weeks of battles with Congress, it suddenly appears that Bush is following the sort of path former President Ronald Reagan pursued when tackling particularly disagreeable domestic policy matters--leaving to the House and Senate the politically uncomfortable work of hashing out an agreement, and then, when a number of trial balloons have been floated and popped, signing on to a compromise almost certain to win approval.

However, Bush has also shown an unwillingness to stay far removed from the process of working out an agreement. He met during the morning, before leaving for Texas, with Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.).