Reagan Hits at ‘Useless Tax Dodges’ : Says Attacks on His Bill Are ‘Balderdash,’ Derides Gov. Cuomo

President Reagan flew to Florida today and attempted to drum up interest in a tax bill that congressional leaders say just isn’t a top-priority item among constituents more concerned about the trade deficit or South Africa.

Using his own age and inevitable retirement to identify himself with his elderly audience, the 74-year-old, second-term President pressed his campaign against “useless tax dodges” and called charges that his tax plan would hurt the middle class “balderdash.”

Addressing about 2,600 senior citizens brought together by a national lobby financed largely by corporations that support the Administration’s tax bill, Reagan said he opposes the present system because it isn’t fair.

Hails Free Enterprise

“I’ve been preaching the merits of free enterprise for years,” said Reagan, whose 1981 tax cut was attacked for providing the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers with the greatest benefits. “Business people provide jobs and create wealth. I have nothing against them; on the contrary, they have my heartfelt admiration.

“What I am against is a tax system that allows some to take perfectly legal deductions that by any standard of fairness are an outrage.”

“Every year many Americans pay more in federal income taxes than the giant corporations they work for,” he said. “Some individuals go on so-called ‘educational’ ocean cruises or purchase sky boxes at sports arenas and write them off as business expenses.”

It is a message Reagan has hammered home in speeches in more than a dozen states since he launched his campaign to overhaul the tax system in a Memorial Day address in nearby Orlando.

All ‘Will Be Better Off’

Reagan derided a “prominent national figure”--New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo--for saying on national television last weekend that his tax plan would hurt the middle class while benefiting the rich.

“I finished . . . watching that show on the ceiling looking down,” Reagan said. “If I may use a word that people our age will remember, balderdash. There are some earthier words, but balderdash will have to do.”

Reagan insisted that his tax plan “means that every group in America will be better off” and accused Cuomo of being one who “deliberately doesn’t want to understand” the tax plan.

Financed by Corporations

Today’s forum was organized by Americans for Tax Reform, a coalition of business and community groups set up to lobby for the tax bill. It is financed largely by its corporate sponsors, including Dart & Kraft.