Reagan Against Tax Increase for Military Costs

President Reagan is not interested in a suggestion from the Senate Budget Committee chairman to increase taxes to pay for more Pentagon spending next year, the President’s spokesman said today.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes reiterated Reagan’s opposition to tax increases in response to questions about a proposal from Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) that Reagan soften his opposition to a $10.7-billion tax increase in the 1987 budget.

In exchange, Domenici said, he would try to make sure most of that money went to the Pentagon.

“I believe if the President joined with us we could at least commit somewhere around two-thirds to three-fourths of this rather small revenue increase . . . to something close to the Senate’s” military budget, Domenici said on Monday.

But Speakes said today that Reagan “does not want to raise taxes in order to finance the defense increase.”

House Majority Leader Jim Wright (D-Tex.) said Monday that he doubted whether the House could support Domenici’s proposal. “I think it would be very hard to sell to the House,” he said. “We have pared domestic services to the bone.”

The Senate approved $301 billion for the Pentagon. Reagan requested $320 billion. The House approved only $285 billion.