The way I understand it he wasn’t cutting 4 billion he wanted to get the money in tax increases with the promise of tax cuts later. Reagan fell for that one once and said he would never do it again.
There was an agreement for major spending reductions if Bush 41 agreed to tax increases.
The taxes went up, but the Democrats who controlled Congress thumbed their noses at the President and there were no spending cuts.
Then they used 41’s words “read my lips, no new taxes” to run him out of the WH> Generally speaking the Republicans do not do well when negotiating with the dems.