Word: domenici
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...Republicans' disarray was most evident in the Senate Budget Committee, chaired by New Mexico Republican Pete Domenici. The committee stuck to its earlier decision to limit next year's military spending to a real increase of 5%, even though Reagan aides had belatedly signaled that he might accept a 7.5% hike instead of the 10% that he has been demanding. It also recommended raising $267 billion in additional revenue over the next five years to avoid budget deficits of $200 billion or more each year. This new revenue was $60 billion more than the Administration had indicated...
...Thursday morning, Domenici concluded that the entire budget process would be imperiled if his committee did not quickly reach a decision. He sent word through aides to Howard Baker, who was briefly hospitalized for treatment of an ulcer, that he could wait no longer. Baker agreed. The budget chairman next lunched with Florida Senator Lawton Chiles, ranking Democrat on the committee. Domenici told Chiles that the White House was seeking yet another delay in the vote. Domenici said he would present the Administration's revenue proposals to the committee; if they lost, as he expected, Chiles should offer...
...rejected, 11 to 6. Chiles offered the Democratic revenue-raising figures, and they were approved, 13 to 4. Only three Republicans (Armstrong, Indiana's Dan Quayle and Iowa's Charles Grassley) and Democrat Fritz Hollings, who favors a freeze on most federal spending, voted against the package. Domenici claimed that he had cut a deal with Chiles only to move the issue to the Senate floor. There he intends to fight against the tax increases that his own committee had just approved. Despite this rationale, it was apparent that Domenici had not only lost patience with the Administration...
These were "non-options," Domenici fumed after the session with Reagan. "There were no significant changes. It was impossible." Said Mark Andrews of North Dakota, who had been elected in the Reagan landslide of 1980: "These great savings turn out to be non-savings." Andrews dismissed the lower fuel costs as "just a windfall from some sheik." Nor did conservative Democrats give any promise of support. Complained James Exon of Nebraska: "Not a single bullet has been cut." Members of both parties remained unconvinced that the nation could afford the buildup Reagan envisions in the face of a fiscal...
...Thursday, the day of the Budget Committee meeting, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger finally agreed to accept a 7.9% increase. Five minutes before the vote, Reagan called Domenici to ask for more time to negotiate. The conversation was heated. "No, we're too far along," Domenici replied. At Democratic insistence, Reagan's proposal for 10.7% was put to a vote. It failed in the Republican-dominated committee by 19 to 2. The final slap came when the committee passed, by a 17-to-4 majority, an increase of only 5%. That would trim up to $13 billion from...