Word: balked
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Outlining the program is one thing; selling it is something very different. Though the President won every important legislative battle in 1981, one senior adviser concedes that "we are going to lose some" this year. Congress may well balk at further sharp cuts in social spending unless Reagan agrees to significant reductions in defense-spending plans as well. And no legislator will be eager to vote for higher taxes in an election year...
...army is also short of such critical items as helicopters and spare parts. Substantial help is unlikely to come from the U.S., despite the Reagan Administration's desire to halt Marxist expansion in Central America. Already concerned about Guatemala's human rights record, Congress undoubtedly would balk at providing new aid. The funds for the army therefore would have to be taken from other areas of the hard-pressed economy. Says one local intelligence analyst: "Something has to give. If they expand the army, that will cut into the budget for building roads, schools and health clinics...
Even so, the proposed White House cut from previously planned 1983 domestic spending is expected to total almost $30 billion. Even some loyal Republicans are likely to balk. Said Majority Leader Howard Baker last week: "You've cut all you can from discretionary programs. We may have overdone it already in some of them...
...domestic programs, perhaps so Reagan can later ask for lesser, though still hefty, reductions without seeming hardhearted. Cabinet officials have begun to declare their dismay publicly and most are taking their protests to the President instead of acquiescing to Stockman's demands. Congress also is almost certain to balk. Says Joseph McDade of Pennsylvania, a savvy Republican on the House Appropriations Committee: "We'll not see a repeat next year of what we saw this year...
Worse, an Egyptian-Saudi-Jordanian coalition could well terrify Israel, leading it either to balk at returning the rest of the Sinai to Egyptian rule on schedule next April, or to continue stalling on negotiations with Cairo to provide autonomy for the 1.3 million Palestinian Arabs of the occupied West Bank and Gaza, or both. The Reagan Administration has proved notably unwilling to lean on Israel in any way that would assuage Arab fears. Washington's ineffectual protests against Israeli air raids on the Iraqi nuclear reactor, and on Palestinian areas of Beirut, were widely and bitterly noted...