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Weinberger denies, stubbornly, that he is being needlessly stubborn about the budget. "I am not contumaciously glued to any particular number," he says. "But I do feel that the programs we have now are essential, and if we do not get them we are sending bad signals around the world." Weinberger, moreover, points out that even if critics get their way and the Pentagon budget is cut by $5 billion to $10 billion, the slash will hardly make a sliver's worth of difference in a projected deficit of $150 billion. The Defense Secretary has grown so protective of his budget domain that he adamantly refuses to heed requests from Congress to suggest parings. "I don't want to participate in a process of that kind," Weinberger says flatly. "I don't have cuts to propose."
But with last week's defeat for the MX in the House, Weinberger has perhaps begun to show a willingness to compromise in order to save the missile altogether. Said a Government official: "Maybe the cold gray dawn of reality is finally coming to the Defense Department."
—ByJames Kelly. Reported by Douglas Brew and Bruce W. Nelan/ Washington