President Reagan, leaving controversy behind in Washington, took to the road Monday to accuse Democrats of promoting higher taxes, protectionist trade policies and deficit spending that jeopardize America`s economic growth.
Reacting to White House opinion polls that show most Americans give Reagan positive ratings for his handling of the economy, the President tried to rally public support by pressing familiar tax and budget issues he has championed successfully in the past.
Reagan`s brief trip to this economically flourishing Florida town came a day before the Iran-contra hearings were set to resume on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, key lawmakers continued to express concern about administration plans for Navy warships to escort reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.
The 3-hour stop kicked off a series of planned speaking trips out of Washington in the coming weeks intended to reverse Reagan`s declining political fortunes and shift attention away from the growing perception that he is a lame-duck president.
Speaking to employees of the Dictaphone Corp. and before a local civic group, Reagan reaffirmed his pledge to oppose a major tax increase and urged the Senate to shape an alternative to a House-passed trade bill that he considers protectionist.
Sounding a theme that aides hope will be picked up by Republican presidential candidates, Reagan again blamed the Democrats for the record budget deficits piled up during his administration and called on Congress to hold the line on domestic spending.
”There are some people up in Washington who seem determined to destroy our economic expansion and send us right back into the malaise and stagflation of the 1970s,” Reagan said.
Reagan rejected suggestions by some top aides that he may ultimately accept a tax increase of some sort to help reduce this year`s projected $173 billion budget deficit.
”Any tax hike that makes it into the Oval Office won`t make it out alive,” he said.
Turning to his nationally televised speech last week about the recent allied economic summit in Venice, Reagan admitted that polls showed most Americans paid attention mainly to the portions of the address devoted to the federal budget deficit.
”Our polls showed that of all the subjects I touched on, the American people listened with the greatest interest and concern to my discussion of the federal budget–and of the threat posed to our nation by deficit spending,”
Reagan said.
White House aides acknowledge that polls taken by Republican pollster Richard Wirthlin, a longtime Reagan adviser, indicated the President`s speech last week did little to halt his recent political slide.
Besides being seen as a weakened leader at the Venice summit, Reagan also received negative ratings for his handling of several major issues, according to the White House polls.
In areas ranging from foreign policy to his role in the Iran-contra affair, the polls indicate Americans disapprove of Reagan`s policies and are anxious about the future, aides said.
The polls also show an overwhelming percentage of the public simply does not believe Reagan`s repeated denials that he knew proceeds from U.S. arms sales to Iran were diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.
Reagan received positive ratings in three areas: his overall popularity, his handling of nuclear arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union and his approach to the economy and budget matters, aides said.
While independent polls show Reagan`s approval ratings hovering slightly below 50 per cent, the White House polls showed that most Americans still like the President.
Similarly, more than half of all Americans surveyed approve of the way Reagan has approached budget matters and the economy, and most blame Congress for the nation`s budget deficit, the White House polls show.
Reagan tried to convert those poll results into tangible support Monday, calling on members of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce to make lawmakers
”feel the heat” if Congress does not cut domestic spending and curb the deficit.
The President also called for an ”Economic Bill of Rights” that would ensure ”congressional taxing and spending can never again endanger our livelihoods.”
Reagan did not elaborate but he said he would speak out on this theme next month.
He also called anew for familiar budget reforms that include a balanced budget amendment, a presidential line-item veto, a two-year budget process and other changes in the way the federal government conducts its business.
Reagan said some polls show 80 percent of the public backs his call for an amendment to the Constitution that would require Congress to pass balanced budgets.
