Bush Prefers Senate Budget to Democrats’ Plan

WASHINGTON —  President Bush said today he and both GOP congressional leaders are “on the same wavelength” in preferring a Senate committee’s bipartisan deficit reduction proposal over a House Democratic plan.

Speaking with reporters before leaving on a two-day, five-state political swing, Bush also renewed his attack on Congress for failing to complete work on a budget and deficit-cutting plan.

And the President again refused to clarify publicly which higher taxes he would accept as Congress struggled to complete its budget work by Friday’s deadline, when a bill temporarily funding government operations will expire.

Bush has said repeatedly he would not sign another stopgap spending bill to keep the government functioning beyond Friday unless Congress sends him a budget and deficit reduction plan by then that he can accept.

Bush, who met today with Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas and House Republican leader Robert Michel of Illinois, said the three of them “were pretty much on the same wavelength” in preferring the deficit-reduction package approved early Saturday by the Senate Finance Committee.