Democrats See More Tax Plan Support

Key House Democrats, scrambling to line up Democratic votes behind the House Ways and Means Committee’s tax-overhaul plan, said privately Thursday that their initial head counts indicate stronger support than they had expected for the proposal.

Republican leaders, meanwhile, repeated their opposition to the plan but indicated that they would not actively work to defeat the bill if President Reagan undertakes a strong lobbying campaign in support of it.

Democrats close to the issue refused to reveal the politically sensitive preliminary totals of Democrats who have committed themselves to vote for the package but they characterized their results as “positive.”

Noting that the oil industry in his Houston district already is depressed, Rep. Michael A. Andrews (D-Tex.) said: “It doesn’t help a middle-class worker if rates go down and he loses his job.”

Meanwhile, House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) asserted again that the outcome of next week’s vote hinges upon how forcefully Reagan lobbies for the plan.

Noting that Reagan had made repeated television appeals and heavily pressured individual members to support his 1981 budget cuts, O’Neill said: “The President needs to lobby just as hard if we are to accomplish the historic, bipartisan overhaul in the tax system that he has promised.”