House Split Over How to Figure Spending : Budget: It votes to base legislation on estimates of congressional agency, not OMB. That will increase outlays for Democratic social programs, GOP says.

Last autumn’s battle over the budget erupted anew Thursday as Democrats angered Republicans by trying to seize more control over how budget numbers are computed.

In one of the first official acts of the 102nd Congress, the House adopted rules giving Congress, instead of the White House, the power to referee any disputes over the spending limits enacted as part of last fall’s compromise deficit-reduction package.

Although the issue seems arcane, the fight in effect determines which side will control what little flexibility there may be in the budget numbers, and it foreshadows continuing partisan hostility over budget issues that many thought had been laid to rest.

Democratic leaders defended the new rules as necessary to implement the 1990 budget accord and to circumvent what one congressman characterized as White House attempts to block expansion of major social programs by providing unrealistically high cost estimates.

But Republicans were incensed by the move, accusing the Democrats of bad faith.

“We’re very much upset over the fact that the Democratic Party has chosen to, frankly, go back on their word,” House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) told reporters. “I don’t think you can put it in any other . . . terms.”

House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) added: “They couldn’t keep their word for 24 hours. The minute they get sworn in, they’re going to break the deal.”

At the White House, President Bush said that changing the rules on a partisan vote was “neither fair nor right” and “puts into serious doubt whatever they might say or promise the American people on other significant issues in the upcoming session.”

The budget bill, designed to reduce the projected federal deficit by more than $40 billion this year and nearly $500 billion over five years, raised taxes on income, cigarettes, alcohol and other items and set limits on the growth of federal spending.

The bill’s enforcement provisions require that any increases in spending caused by expansion of entitlement programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and Aid to Families with Dependent Children, must be offset by automatic cuts in other programs. The programs are referred to as entitlements because they offer benefits to anyone who meets stated income, age or other criteria.

The budget bill authorizes the Office of Management and Budget, which reports to the White House, to determine the impact on the budget of new entitlement legislation.

On Thursday, however, the House, by a partisan vote of 242 to 160, adopted rules that require it to base its legislative actions on cost estimates provided by the Congressional Budget Office, an arm of Congress.

“It is my view that last year’s budget agreement did not intend for OMB . . . to have the right to be involved in the day-to-day legislative activities of the Congress,” said Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Republicans said that the Congressional Budget Office is likely to turn in unrealistically low estimates of the cost of Democratic social legislation, paving the way for enactment of major new spending programs without counterbalancing cuts in other programs.

“They intend to bring to the floor a series of big spending proposals . . . where they are going to, in effect, instruct the Congressional Budget Office to . . . say, ‘This isn’t really all that expensive,’ ” Gingrich said. “The Democrats are bringing in their referee to make sure they control the game on their own terms . . . . It’s called cheating.”

Democrats, on the other hand, accused the Office of Management and Budget of routinely overestimating the cost of legislation that expands or changes social programs, in an effort to defeat measures that the White House finds politically unpalatable.

“I know that the Office of Management and Budget can play political games with their estimates,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the health and environment subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

“I’ve seen it several times in Medicare and Medicaid areas. They will overestimate . . . “ Waxman said. Last year, cost considerations stalled a Waxman initiative that would have extended Medicaid benefits to those who are infected with the AIDS virus but who have not yet become seriously ill.

If Republicans disagree with Congressional Budget Office cost estimates, House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said, Bush has the authority to veto the legislation.

Gingrich earlier had read reporters a letter from Bush in which the President vowed to do just that to any legislation based on the Congressional Budget Office estimates.