Israel and Egypt Facing Aid Cuts, Gephardt Says : Policy: More money for Russia means less for others, despite Clinton’s assurances to Rabin and Mubarak, lawmaker declares.

WASHINGTON — Other countries receiving U.S. aid will face across-the-board cuts when Congress appropriates additional long-term assistance for Russia, House Democratic Leader Richard A. Gephardt declared Monday after returning from a congressional fact-finding trip to that nation.

Although President Clinton has assured Israel and Egypt, the largest recipients of U.S. aid, that they would face no reductions, Gephardt said: “Everybody has to be willing to be flexible for the good of the whole.”

Gephardt, in a lengthy luncheon interview with reporters, was asked specifically whether Israel and Egypt will face cuts. He replied that they, along with other countries, will have to “take a hit.”

Congress would look to defense and other government programs for further spending reductions to compensate for additional aid to Russia, he added.

Israel is by far the biggest beneficiary of U.S. assistance, receiving about $3 billion a year from a total of $15 billion. Egypt ranks second, with about $2.3 billion a year. Any attempt to reduce funds to Israel undoubtedly would mean a bruising battle on Capitol Hill, where that country’s staunch supporters traditionally fight any effort to cut aid.

Earlier, other Democrats in Congress suggested that aid to Israel and Egypt would have to be cut--but Clinton has personally assured both Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that their aid would not be reduced.

At the recent U.S.-Russian summit in Vancouver, Canada, the President announced a $1.6-billion package of immediate aid for Russia that will come from funds already appropriated by Congress. Clinton also said he will urge Congress to approve additional long-term aid needed to promote democratization and economic reform in the former Communist country.

Gephardt said that long-term aid probably will amount to between $1 billion and $2 billion a year for an undetermined number of years. But the Missouri congressman argued that the investment would be worthwhile “because if Russia recedes and returns to the past, it will cause serious difficulties for our economy and for Europe, which already is in a bad recession.”

Republicans as well as Democrats are “very supportive” of additional long-term aid to Russia, Gephardt said. Other congressional leaders, including House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.), also made the trip to Russia.

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, during a meeting with the congressional delegation, said he will resign if he fails to win a vote of confidence in the country’s April 25 referendum on his leadership and the performance of the Russian Parliament, which narrowly failed to impeach him recently.

“Yeltsin told us flatly three different times that if he fails to win a vote of confidence, ‘I will quit, I will leave,’ ” Gephardt said.

After talking with many people in Russia, Gephardt said, he believes the consensus is that Yeltsin will win a “vote-of-confidence vote by 60% or more.”

On three other questions on the referendum, he said, “the guess” is that only about 30% will vote that economic policies are working, 40% will favor an early presidential election and 60% to 70% will favor the early election of a new Parliament.

However, Gephardt pointed out that while Yeltsin is counting on an outpouring of public support at the polls, he has no political organization behind him and little experience in the politicking needed in a modern democratic election.

The Russian president apparently is making little use of television in his campaign. He told the congressional delegation that he will be on television “every five days--with a speech.”

“Only the Communist Party, as weak and discredited as it is, has any apparatus for delivering the vote,” Gephardt said. And those who make up the remnants of the party are opposed to Yeltsin and his political and economic reforms.

Gephardt also discussed domestic issues and said that despite reports that Clinton’s investment tax-credit plan faces probable defeat in Congress, he would not rule out the possibility that it will pass.

Gephardt said the investment tax-credit was a good idea. But he said it has run into trouble because it singles out certain types of businesses to receive the credit, leaving other firms unhappy.