Going for It

Following his own exhortation to the nation on tax reform — “Go for it!” — Ronald Reagan went. He hit the road last week for Oklahoma City, Atlanta and Birmingham to sell his plan to the people and do a little politicking for Republican Senators up for re-election in 1986. The President not only stressed the themes of fairness and simplicity, which his proposals are designed to promote, but acted as if he were still an outraged political outsider by linking tax reform to his cardinal themes of bashing Washington and shrinking the Federal Government.

In particular, Reagan defended the elimination of deductions for state and local taxes. “Some state governments outside Oklahoma have not yet learned to say no to special interest groups and higher taxes,” Reagan told a group in Oklahoma City. Critics contend that he is pitting high-tax states against others in an economic civil war. Said Connecticut Republican Congressman Stewart McKinney: “It’s the South and Southwest against the Northeast and Midwest.”

On Capitol Hill, Democrats were gingerly trying to determine how to make the plan more palatable to themselves and their constituents. “Reagan is giving populism a bad name,” said Byron Dorgan of North Dakota. “If I were making $400,000 a year, I’d be the biggest cheerleader for this in America.” Missouri Democrat Richard Gephardt, co-sponsor of a Democratic tax-reform plan, said there was talk of adding either a fourth, higher rate, perhaps 40%, for the very rich, or providing a further break for the middle class. Said Gephardt: “We need to put our stamp on tax reform.”

Reagan’s barnstorming for a fundamental change in taxation has helped him regain the momentum his Administration seemed to have lost earlier this year. His pollster, Richard Wirthlin, recorded a 71% approval rating for the President’s tax-reform speech (the highest since his February 1981 call for large budget and tax cuts), and a New York Times/CBS News poll reported last week that his approval rating had gone up three points since May, to 59%.

Yet by presenting his plan as providing “relief” from taxation and getting the Government “off our backs,” Reagan is engaging in a bit of sleight of hand. The bill is designed to be revenue neutral. It would rearrange the tax burden rather than lessen the Government’s impact on the economy. By depicting the proposal in ideological terms, Reagan may also risk losing the support of Democratic centrists who are sympathetic to the plan but not to the fustian accompanying it. “The President has to keep his message in single-minded focus,” says one G.O.P. analyst. “To the extent that the message becomes diffuse, it will attract opponents.”