Reagan rejects aide’s offer to quit after uproar

Press, 14 November 1981, Page 8

Reagan rejects aide’s offer to quit after uproar

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Reagan's Budget Director, David Stockman, offered to quit yesterday amid a row over his published misgivings about the Administration's economic programme, but the President refused to accept the resignation. However, President Reagan issued a severe reprimand to the Budget Director, who said he had caused "a rotten, horrible, unfortunate” incident and was guilty of poor judgment. Mr Stockman made an appearance, pale and trembling, his voice breaking with emotion, before reporters in the White House to acknowledge “careless rambling” in an interview published in the December issue of the magazine, “Atlantic Monthly." Mr Stockman, a 35-year-old whiz kid who has been the author of many of President Reagan's economic proposals, was quoted in the magazine as saying he had never had much faith in the Administration's economic programme.

Of the economic programme he said “we didn’t think it all the way through" and “we didn’t add up all the numbers." He also said that an across-the-board tax cut approved by Congress last summer was a “Trojan horse” designed to help rich people. Mr Stockman told the reporters: “The quotes are words that I spoke.” He said he had offered to resign but still had faith in the President's economic policies. The interview caused a controversey in Congress, where Democrats said it confirmed their view that the President’s programme was a failure.

But Mr Stockman declared yesterday: “I would not be here now, nor would' I have worked 16 hours per day for nearly a year, if I did not believe in the President and his policies.” President Reagan summoned Mr Stockman to the Oval Office for lunch yesterday cancelling a meeting

with Vice-President Bush two days after copies of the interview began to circulate in Washington. Veteran reporters said they could not recall any previous incident in which a Cabinet-level official had been rebuked by a President, had offered his resignation, and then had been told to stay at his post. The White House’s deputy press secretary, Larry Speakes, said in a written statement: “Mr Stockman acknowledged that he had made a mistake and apologised for what he has now come to recognise as a grie vous error.

“The President expressed his grave concern and disappointment about the issues raised by the article.”

The White House statement said the President “expressed particular dismay at the possible suggestion that his Administration ... might seek to mislead the American public. “He stated unequivocally that he would not tolerate such behaviour, that the policies of the Administration ...

were being pursued in good faith ..." The statement went on to say that Mr Reagan, despite his feelings, decided not to accept Mr Stockman's resignation.

The presidential reprimand came just a few hours after Republican leaders said Mr Reagan had joined them in giving Mr

Stockman "a nice round of applause" at another White House meeting called to discuss Budget issues. The Budget Director said at his press conference after the lunch with President Reagan that he had offered to resign “because my poor judgment and loose talk have done him and his programme a disservice.

“Worse, they have spread an impression that is utterly false,” he said. “In our meeting", I told the President that I would not permit my careless rambling to a reporter to stand in the way of the success of his presidency or the credibility of his programme ... “I am staying on because I believe even more deeply that .the President has charted a sound, constructive course."

Mr Stockman also expressed the belief that his interview had been conducted on an off-the-record basis.

He voiced special regret that he had described the Administration’s tax plan as a Trojan horse to help the rich.

"Trojan horse is a wooden beast without any brains,” he said.

“Had I recalled that, I would not have used that metaphor.” Congressional Democrats cited Mr Stockman's remarks as further evidence to support their claims of chaos within the Administration.

Earlier this month, the Secretary of State (Mr Alexander Haig) accused an unnamed White House official of conducting a “guerrilla campaign” against him. He was then publicly contradicted by the Defence Secretary (Mr Caspar Weinberger) after saying N.A.T.O. had a contingency plan to fire a warning nuclear shot in the event of a Soviet move against Western Europe. But Mr Reagan denied at a press conference on Tuesday that anything was wrong and, to loud laughter from the assembled journalists, described his foreign-policy team as a happy group.