Senators Pressure Reagan to OK Tax Hikes, Oil Fees : $60-Billion Saving Seen by Domenici

Senate budget negotiators, making another effort today to get agreement on a major deficit-reduction package, publicly pressured President Reagan to compromise on tax increases and House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. to compromise on Social Security.

“Stubbornness isn’t going to do this. Stubbornness is not going to solve this problem,” Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said after a private meeting at which Republican and Democratic senators discussed a three-year, $340 billion deficit-reduction plan.

But there was little evidence of Reagan or O’Neill (D-Mass.) softening their positions.

Provisions Outlined

Domenici said the plan, which would reduce next year’s projected $200-billion budget deficit by more than $60 billion, includes:

--Making inflation adjustments in income tax rates plus Social Security and other benefit programs every two years, instead of annually.

--Recommending a fee on imported oil. Other senators said this would be $5 a barrel on imported crude oil and up to $10 a barrel on refined oil.

--Reducing the domestic spending cuts in a Senate-passed budget and moving toward a House-passed budget as a conciliatory gesture.

The package would trim the budget deficit to about $85 billion by 1988, retaining the goal set at the beginning of the year by the Administration and congressional leaders to adopt a plan to cut annual deficits in half--to about $100 billion--by 1988.

Meeting Today

House and Senate negotiators planned to meet this afternoon for the first time in a week to hear the Senate plan.

“I have the greatest respect for all our leaders,” Domenici said, “but frankly there has to be some give on both sides of Pennsylvania (Avenue), the President and the Speaker.”

But Reagan, making his first trip to the Oval Office since cancer surgery, was asked if he supported an oil import tax and replied, “I’m not for any taxes.”

Asked whether he would increase pressure on Congress for a budget, he replied, “That’s what I’ve been doing.”

O’Neill said he was “stubbornly opposed to any drop in the (cost of living allowances) this year or next year or any gimmickry.” He called the idea “morally wrong, politically wrong.”

Oil Import Fee Opposed

He also hit at the oil import fee, saying, “All of us in the Northeast oppose it.”

The Speaker also suggested the latest Senate plan was a ploy to walk away from the budget talks.

“It may be the bail-out the Republicans are looking for,” he said.

Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas supported the plan, telling reporters it “sounds like a pretty good idea to me.”

At the White House, spokesman Larry Speakes reiterated Reagan’s position saying: “The President has indicated that he is against any tax. The President has historically been against oil import fees, but the White House will not comment on specifics of the budget until we see the entirety.”