Senate Panel Approves Baker for Treasury Job

The Senate Finance Committee today unanimously approved the confirmation of James A. Baker III as Treasury secretary.

The vote came after a 2 1/2-hour confirmation hearing at which Baker, the only witness, told senators that President Reagan will give “equal priority” to pushing for a major tax simplification plan this year along with attacking federal deficits soaring past $200 billion.

Baker, who is now White House chief of staff and who is swapping jobs with current Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan, is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate either late this week or early next.

‘Not Unlike 1981’

“It will be not unlike 1981, when we had a major budget initiative and a major tax initiative,” Baker told the Finance Committee at the beginning of today’s hearing.

Baker, Reagan’s chief of staff for four years, told the panel: “We must, on a bipartisan basis, bring greater fairness to the American tax system and make it simpler.

“We must increase incentives for savings and investment, and we must thereby encourage the increased productivity that is a key to a better life for all.”

Baker said Reagan will detail the Administration’s proposal for tax simplification in the State of the Union address early next month.

‘Equal Priority’

Asked by committee members whether he felt that tax overhaul was more or less important than cutting federal deficits, Baker declared: “My views are those of the President and his are that they are of equal priority to him on the domestic agenda.”

Baker also told the panel that Reagan’s budget to be submitted to Congress on Feb. 4 will call for “a total freeze on total federal program outlays for fiscal 1986 relative to 1985.”

However, Baker said Reagan intends to honor his campaign promise to not reduce Social Security benefits and is opposed to efforts under way in Congress that might freeze cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients.

But Baker repeated Reagan’s statement of two weeks ago that he would consider a Social Security freeze only if there were a strong congressional mandate for it.

‘No Qualifications’

Despite wide support for Baker in the Senate, a leading Democrat on economic issues, Sen. William Proxmire of Wisconsin, claims that Baker “clearly has no qualifications” to take over the job as the Administration’s chief economic spokesman.

While conceding that Baker is “a quick study,” Proxmire said Reagan’s nominee “may not know what he is doing in dealing with complex economic and tax matters.”

He said that while Baker “has many fine qualifications,” he has had “no training, not one day’s experience” for the post. Proxmire is ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee and a frequent Administration critic.

Baker, 54, in a biographical sheet he filed with the Finance Committee, said he felt himself qualified to serve as Treasury secretary “by virtue of my experience in both the government and the private sector.”

Baker, a political moderate, joined the Administration after running the presidential campaigns of two Reagan opponents, Gerald R. Ford and George Bush.