The exchange was tense but predictable. Meeting with congressional leaders last week, Ronald Reagan reiterated his support for the controversial Gramm-Rudman amendment to balance the budget in five years. The President also insisted that Gramm-Rudman did not give Congress the right to rescind its earlier agreement to increase defense spending by 3% above inflation in the next two fiscal years. As lawmakers tried to explain that both the Senate and the House versions of deficit reduction call for deep cuts in military spending, Reagan gruffly insisted that a right-minded Congress could indeed achieve a balanced budget without sacrificing the defense buildup....
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