Rescuing Nell--the Right Way

On his latest outing to sell tax reform to the people, President Reagan described his program as a “damsel in distress” lashed to the tracks by selfish special interests. But some of those special interests turn out to be fairly broad-based. There are legitimate questions about the effect of the plan on large segments of society, including state and local governments and the mass of middle-income taxpayers.

Senate Republicans have indicated that they will not stay in session just to pass a tax bill this year. Barber B. Conable Jr., the respected former Republican leader on the House’s tax-writing committee, has raised serious concerns about key features of the President’s plan. There is cause for not rushing for the bandwagon. As Conable wrote in the New York Times, “We had better go slowly and get it right.”

Thus it seems imprudent for White House spokesman Larry Speakes to scold the media, as he did on Wednesday, for failing to give sufficient attention to the President’s now-routine tax-reform speeches. Speakes accused segments of the media of writing off the President’s plan as “a lost issue.” He predicted that they would wind up eating crow.

The first sign that things are not going well is that officials start blaming the media. Tax reform is needed. But the fact is that the President’s plan contains major flaws that have been identified by responsible experts such as Conable. Rather than lecturing the media, the Administration should cooperate with Congress to adopt a plan that will work, and truly benefit both taxpayers and the national economy. Then we’ll get poor Nell off the tracks.