Reagan Goes Stumping for Tax Plan: ‘It’s Time We Rebelled’

President Reagan, carrying his tax reform crusade from Colonial Williamsburg, Va., to this mid-American industrial community today, complained that the current system is so unfair it encourages honest taxpayers to cheat and declared, “It’s time we rebelled.”

In a slap at government tax audits, Reagan said that under the present law, “decent citizens (are) called before the Internal Revenue Service to answer for their income and expenditures and show their papers and their proof in a drama that is as common as it is demeaning.”

Reagan embarked on the first of a series of out-of-town appearances to marshal public support among working-class Americans for his package of lower tax rates for individuals and businesses and elimination of many deductions.

Prepared for Compromises

He traveled first to Williamsburg, Va., and then to Oshkosh. On Friday, Reagan will speak in Malvern, Pa., at the Great Valley Corporate Center, a futuristic planned community.

Even as Reagan launched his sales campaign, the Administration acknowledged that he is prepared to accept compromises in the package as it moves through Congress.

“Obviously he prefers not to compromise very much at all; otherwise we would not have prepared such a detailed plan,” White House press aide Albert Brashear said. He acknowledged, however, that “there has to be some room for compromise.”

Reagan, standing before Virginia’s historic House of Burgesses, denounced the current tax code as “so rigged, so unfair, that it corrupts otherwise honest people by encouraging them to cheat.”

Bragging About Cheating

“Thirty and 40 years ago, you didn’t hear people brag at social get-togethers about how they got their tax bill down by exploiting this loophole and engineering that credit,” Reagan said. “But now you do. And it’s not considered bad behavior.

“After all, goes this thinking, what’s immoral about cheating a system that is itself a cheat? That isn’t a sin, it’s a duty.

“Our federal tax system is, in short, utterly impossible, utterly unjust and completely counterproductive,” Reagan said. “It’s earned a rebellion, and it’s time we rebelled.”

He said Americans, when confronted with a new plan, are shrewd to ask, “Now, how are you going to hurt me now?”

He replied, “I have to tell you from the bottom of my being: This is a plan that is going to help our country by helping every individual in it.”

Calls Plan Pro-Family

In Oshkosh, Reagan portrayed his plan as pro-family, with a near doubling of the personal exemption for each taxpayer and dependent to $2,000, expansion of the Individual Retirement Account benefits and compression of the tax brackets into a three-tier system of 15%, 25% and 35%.

“All the way up and down the income scale, the overwhelming majority of American families will find themselves with more resources to devote to their children--to pay for their homes and perhaps, here in Oshkosh, to buy a boat, and to put it away for retirement,” Reagan said.

“We want to do away with a tax code that reflects years of lobbying efforts by powerful special interests. Instead, we want a tax code for Main Street America.”

He promised that “as we throw out the bad in the old tax system, we’ll be sure to keep the good.” He mentioned, specifically, the home mortgage interest deduction and tax breaks for Social Security and veterans’ disability payments, and deductions for charitable contributions.