Under Pressure, Clinton Vows More Cuts in Spending : Economy: President reacts to growing criticism after Democrats force delay in action on his stimulus plan. Congress to give priority to deficit-reduction resolution.

In a concession to mounting criticism, President Clinton pledged Tuesday to find “more cuts” in federal spending, while an insurrection among Democratic lawmakers forced congressional leaders to delay action on the President’s short-term stimulus plan.

“I’m looking for more,” Clinton told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “I am sure, after . . . almost five weeks in office, that there are more cuts coming.”

Although Clinton has said repeatedly in recent days that he would consider additional spending reductions in his overall economic plan, Tuesday’s statement marked the first time that he actually has promised to find more.

In a move intended to reassure voters and members of Congress who fear that new taxes might be passed while cuts in spending on popular programs are forgotten, the White House worked out a deal with congressional leaders and restive junior members of Congress to vote first on a budget resolution setting overall deficit-reduction targets and goals for spending cuts. The President’s $16.3-billion economic stimulus package will be voted on later.

Both Clinton’s pledge and the change in schedule reflect public pressure on lawmakers to make deeper reductions in federal spending as part of the President’s economic recovery plan. Members of Congress newly elected in November have felt that pressure particularly intensely and have complained that Clinton’s package does not cut spending sharply enough. His proposals would boost taxes by $274 billion over four years and cut spending by $223 billion.

Clinton also picked up one of Ross Perot’s suggestions, pledging that he would periodically “make reports” to the public about the progress of spending reductions. The White House has been eager to obtain Perot’s support--or at least his tacit acceptance--of Clinton’s plan and has courted him whenever possible.

The agreement to vote on deficit-reduction goals before the stimulus plan will delay the $16.3 billion in new spending by only a few weeks at most--but it demonstrates the complex political situation confronting Clinton. On the one hand, rank-and-file Democrats, particularly the 64 new House members elected last November, have demanded new cuts. On the other hand, White House strategists fear that too many such cuts will cost them the votes of older legislators wedded to pet programs.

“I’m not concerned about the freshmen,” said one senior White House aide, noting that Administration budget officials have a long list of potential additional cuts they can send to Capitol Hill. “It’s the other guys I’m concerned about.”

Before making their economic plan public last week, Clinton aides had deleted some deep spending cuts that they feared would meet with too much resistance on Capitol Hill. Many cuts in agricultural price supports, for example, were dropped for fear of losing the votes of legislators from rural areas. But the new clamor for deeper cuts appears to have changed that political calculus.

“The politics are different from what people normally would think,” said White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos.

The new legislative schedule is designed, in part, to provide political cover to members of Congress by giving them the opportunity to demonstrate to constituents that they had “locked in” cuts before approving new spending.

But Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that passage of the budget resolution also will give Democrats a real opportunity to respond to public concerns.

“People want to see the cuts first,” she said. “The budget resolution may well give them (members of Congress) a comfortable feeling that they’ve done it.”

Under the new schedule, the House and Senate will speed up consideration of the annual budget resolution--which sets overall targets for spending, taxes and the deficit--and vote on it in late March, rather than in mid-April.

The resolution vote will serve to commit members of Congress to carrying out the budgetary goals they set. Although such resolutions have routinely been violated in the past, public pressure for spending cuts is likely to give this one considerably more force.

With that vote accomplished, Congress would then turn to Clinton’s $16.3-billion economic stimulus package. The new spending includes money to boost programs ranging from immunizing children to building highways and providing summer jobs for disadvantaged youth.

Originally, Clinton and the Democratic leaders had hoped to approve the stimulus package in early March. But Tuesday’s agreement sets the vote for sometime before the House starts its Easter recess on April 5.

The mood of Democratic freshmen, who met Tuesday evening on the economic package and helped spur the change in schedule, was illustrated by Rep. Peter Deutsch (D-Fla.) who said:

“Congress has often spent like a drunken sailor. If the largest freshmen class in the last 50 years has any message, it’s that this cannot happen any more.”

Clinton agreed to change the schedule for his economic program Tuesday afternoon during a telephone conference call with Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.), Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) and House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.).

Many lawmakers who talked with constituents in their districts over the weekend had become convinced that an early vote to raise spending would be a political miscalculation. They argued successfully that voters needed to be convinced first that Washington was serious about reducing the deficit.

“The main weakness of the President’s whole economic package is that it provides for very little spending reduction in this fiscal year we’re in and a whole hell of a lot of taxes,” said Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton), who supports the Clinton stimulus package. “That’s a political weakness. It is a tough sell to all those cynics out there.”

The intraparty opposition, one aide to the House Democratic leadership said, is “across ideological lines,” although the aide acknowledged that much of it came from the 64 Democratic freshmen elected on the same mandate for change as the President.

Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, kept up a steady drumfire of attacks on the program, with Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) declaring: “This package is not going to sell to the American people until we have real spending reductions and eliminate some of the spending he’s proposing.”

With Republicans having served notice they would vote against the package, the Democrats were left with few votes to spare. Defections by as few as 41 Democrats could have sunk the plan in the House.

“With (our) fairly united opposition to this, they started counting on their side and they didn’t have the votes,” said one House Republican aide. “If they brought up (the stimulus package for a vote) anytime soon, it was in trouble.”

Seeking to put the best face on their switch in tactics, however, Foley disputed the notion that the move was triggered by resistance from Democratic rank-and-file members.

“I think we could pass the stimulus package tomorrow,” he said, “but it’s important to demonstrate to the whole country that by adopting the budget resolution we commit to the whole, balanced program.”

Times staff writer David Lauter contributed to this story.