
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990                   TAG: 9007260352
SECTION: NATL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

BUSH SEEKS DEFENSE-CUT LIMIT

President Bush pleaded with lawmakers Wednesday not to cut the defense budget even beyond the $18 billion already targeted by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Bush urged key lawmakers on both congressional armed services committees to press ahead with production of the B-2 bomber and other major new weapons. The House is considering halting production of radar-evading jets, which cost more than $800 million apiece.

The defense session came as Bush administration officials and Republican congressional leaders agreed to a deficit-cutting proposal they plan to present to Democrats at budget negotiations.

The package consists of slightly more than $50 billion in savings, split roughly evenly between new taxes and spending cuts, according to Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., and others. It would save more than $500 billion over five years, relying heavily on cuts in benefit programs such as Medicare, said one participant who asked to not be identified.

But it was unclear when the offer would be made.

Earlier in the day, Bush had met with the five top leaders of Congress to push the budget talks along.

House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., told reporters the two sides have tentatively agreed to extend from 1993 to 1995 the Gramm-Rudman deadline for balancing the budget.

Gephardt said major differences in defense levels is a major hang-up in reaching an overall budget compromise.

Bush and the leaders discussed entitlement programs - Social Security, Medicare and other programs for the poor and elderly - and "both sides are troubled" by the magnitude of cuts that might be needed in those areas, Gephardt said.

by CNB