News In Brief
| Washington
Dole panel holds hearing on how to reduce deficit
Senate Finance Committee chairman Robert Dole began three days of hearings Monday aimed at hammering out a budget-deficit-reduction package. Mr. Dole, a Republican from Kansas, favors spending cuts and tax increases to cut the deficit.
Among scheduled witnesses are Congressional Budget Office director Rudolph Penner and four noted economists, including President Reagan's former Council of Economic Advisers chairman, Murray Weidenbaum. Absent from the list is any member of the administration.
Mr. Reagan is making final decisions on his fiscal 1985 budget, and some reports suggest the deficit will be close to $190 billion. But Ed Dale, chief spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, Sunday denied the administration is looking at that figure. Dale said senior administration officials were tilting in favor of a standby tax increase, to be triggered if the deficit grows too large.
