Hasn’t Eased His Opposition to Tax Boost, Reagan Says : Budget Director Predicts Veto of Higher Rates

WASHINGTON —  President Reagan said today that he has not eased his opposition to higher tax rates, and his chief budget adviser said flat out that the President “is not going to take a tax increase.”

Reagan’s comments and those of Budget Director James C. Miller III came just hours after White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said “everything (including tax increases) is on the table for discussion” and appeared to sharply narrow the President’s bargaining position in a new round of compromise talks with Congress.

On Capitol Hill, the preliminary round of those discussions began with presidential Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. and Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III meeting with Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.).

At the same time, Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas said he is pleased with Reagan’s decision to negotiate and told reporters, “If we have a meaningful negotiation, then we’ve got to lay all the cards out on the table.”

Veto Predicted

Miller predicted that Reagan would veto any tax increase sent to him by Congress if it did not come from a list of revenue increases suggested by the President nine months ago, when he submitted his budget to Congress.

Reagan announced Tuesday, after a meeting with his top financial advisers, that he wanted to open talks with the bipartisan congressional leadership on a budget compromise. Then, in response to a reporter’s question, he seemed to crack open the door he shut long ago on the possibility of a tax boost to reduce the deficit.

“I presented in my budget a program that provided for $22 billion in additional revenue, which was not necessarily taxes. And I’m willing to look at whatever proposal they might have,” Reagan said when asked whether he’d compromise with Democrats seeking a tax increase.

But Miller said that if Congress sends Reagan any tax increase not in the President’s original budget, he will veto it.

“His position on taxes is unchanged. If they send him a tax increase, my prediction is that he will just say, ‘Absolutely not,’ ” Miller said in a speech to a conference of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

Reagan, going into a meeting today with President Jose Azcona Hoyo of Honduras, said he was “willing to look at whatever proposal” congressional leaders put forward.

But, when asked whether he would be willing to agree to a tax increase, Reagan said: “I have not changed my mind about the impact of increased taxes, which does not result in increased revenues. Historically, tax increases result in reduced revenues, and reduced tax rates result in increased revenues, and that’s a point that I would make in any discussions.”