White House Struggles to Gain Tax Bill Votes : Rebellion Reflects Frustration of GOP

Underlying the dramatic setback that President Reagan’s fellow Republicans dealt his tax overhaul plan in the House is a deeper--and potentially more significant--groundswell of frustration among GOP congressmen, who believe that the White House takes their support for granted.

Thus, by blocking tax legislation from the House floor, at least temporarily, “we demonstrated yesterday that we are still players in the process,” Mike Johnson, an aide to House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.), said Thursday.

White House Warned

“If they (the Reagan Administration) maul our members any more, it could cost them on farm (legislation), it could cost them on (deficit-reduction legislation), it could cost them on a host of bills next year,” Johnson warned.

House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) agreed: “They sent (the President) a message yesterday. What is the message? The message is there’s independence out there . . . . You lose them once, you could lose them a second time. That’s the first time that he’s lost them.”

Although Republicans are badly outnumbered in the House, they have been the key to Reagan’s ability for five years to repeatedly overcome the will of the House Democratic leadership.

By forming shifting coalitions with dissident Democrats, Republicans have made it possible for Reagan to achieve some of his top legislative priorities, ranging from sweeping budget cuts to funding the controversial MX missile. Indeed, Republicans were so loyal that House Democrats derisively labeled them “Reagan robots.”

But Republicans complain that, when it comes to cutting deals on other issues, top Administration officials ignore their concerns. Moreover, the White House often has demanded that House Republicans follow Reagan down a course that could mean personal political doom.

Social Security Cuts

Early this year, for example, Reagan agreed to back a Senate budget plan that would have cut Social Security benefits. House Republicans, who had suffered in the 1982 elections for supporting Social Security cuts the Administration had sought unsuccessfully that year, protested loudly. But, it was not until House Democrats rejected Reagan’s pact with the Senate that he decided to back away from it.

Increasingly, House Republicans have been bold in opposing Reagan when his demands are not in their own best political interest. When the White House asked the GOP members last April to back proposed military aid to Nicaraguan rebels, Michel told Reagan bluntly that the plan was “dead in the water.” Not until the Administration modified its demands was it able to obtain any funding.

On the tax plan, the Administration had sidestepped the demands of Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee and concentrated instead on negotiations with Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) and the committee’s Democratic majority.

Republicans felt “kind of ostracized from the process,” said Rep. Delbert L. Latta (R-Ohio)--and what the committee produced was a bill that few Republicans could support.

Complaints About Regan

Some noted bitterly that, although White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan had promised last September to consult with them more frequently, he never met with them again on Capitol Hill until after Wednesday’s tax vote had sent shock waves through the White House.

Although some Republicans said that a stormy session with Regan on Thursday had helped them get their point across, others predicted that tension would continue.

“It’s part of the institutional frustration that goes along with being in the minority,” said one GOP leader, who asked not to be identified.