I have no plans for tax increase: Reagan

Press, 26 July 1984, Page 8

I have no plans for tax increase: Reagan

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Ronald Reagan attacked the Democratic Presidential nominee, Walter Mondale, as a politician who would raise U.S. taxes and allow Moscow-backed Communists to topple friendly Governments in Latin America. Lashing out at his General Election opponent, Mr Reagan used a White House news conference yesterday to answer assertions levelled by Mr Mondale and the Democrats at their Presidential nominating convention in San Francisco last week. The two issues that seemed to bother Mr Reagan most were Mr Mondale’s assertions that either he or Mr Reagan would have to raise taxes soon to cope with record U.S. Government deficits and that the President was “trigger happy” in foreign policy. Mr Reagan flatly denied the assertion that he had a “secret plan” to raise taxes, saying, “I have no plans for a tax increase.” He then tried to pin this issue on Mr Mondale alone, adding, “He believes in tax increases and I believe that whenever possible we

should reduce the tax burden.” Rather than raise taxes, Mr Reagan said, he would concentrate on simplifying the United States tax code to make it more equitable. He said that existing tax laws were “practically immoral” because they allowed some Americans to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Consumer price index figures released yesterday showed that prices rose only 0.2 per cent in June, representing, an annual increase in the cost of living of 2 per cent The increase in 1982 and 1983 was just under 4 per cent in each year. “The basis for this recovery is solid. So I just think what we are seeing is an unwillingness to believe we have controlled inflation,” Mr Reagan said. He declined to be specific, but said, “We are going to look at every area that we can” when asked what programmes would be cut to reduce the Budget deficit. He would not try to balance the Budget by cutting social security or Medicare benefits for the elderly and needy. Under a compromise

worked out last year between the White House and Congress, social security recipients would not receive a cost-of-living raise if inflation rose less than 3 per cent But Mr Reagan said that he would seek a cost-of-living increase no matter what the inflation rate. On Latin America, he said that either the Democrats did not understand the Communist threat, “or they are ignoring it” The news conference gave Mr Reagan his first chance to have a nationally televised go at Mr Mondale and the opposition party since the Democrats concluded their convention on Friday. Mr Mondale, who is on a fishing holiday in Minnesota, described Mr Reagan’s assertions as a “fish story” and denied that he had a secret plan to lift taxes. Mr Reagan paid grudging respect to Mr Mondale’s choice of Geraldine Ferraro, of New York, as the first woman Vice-Presidential candidate on a main party ticket “I think this is just another step forward in the recognition of the new place of women that’s been long overdue,” he said.