Tax Bill Foes Crushed; Passage by House Likely Today

Republican foes of tax overhaul legislation mounted a late and desperate revolt against the measure Wednesday, but the uprising was crushed before it could pose a real threat to today’s likely House approval of the broadest tax code changes in 50 years.

After the battle, Democratic strategists said they hope to exceed the 258-68 margin by which the first version of tax legislation passed the House last winter. House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) had warned that the vote would be “closer than we thought.”

Their cause was aided Wednesday when President Reagan sent all House members a letter asking for a successful end to the “long and sometimes difficult journey toward historic tax reform.”

Prey to Special Interests

The plea arrived as wavering supporters of the legislation, which lowers taxes for 80% of households and grants dramatic tax relief to the poor, were steadily being picked off by special-interest forces opposed to the bill.

Equally worrisome to supporters is that many lawmakers are maintaining that suspicious hometown voters do not believe the bill aids them and are urging a vote against it.

The peril briefly increased on Wednesday when Rep. Bill Archer (R-Tex.), the leading GOP critic of tax overhaul, hatched a proposal that could have put an end to tax revision for the remainder of this session of Congress. Archer and other foes contend that the bill’s higher business taxes and reduced breaks for oil and real estate will drastically curb economic growth.

Hold Closed Meeting

In a closed meeting of Republican leaders, Archer proposed to ask the House Thursday to send the bill back to the House-Senate committee that drafted the final version of tax legislation last month.

The move, he said, would allow time for changes in such politically charged areas as the deductibility of individual retirement accounts and sales taxes and the tax treatment of pensions. But O’Neill and others said that Archer’s plan would kill the bill because the changes could never be agreed on before Congress adjourns.

“I think it poses a lot (of danger) to the tax bill,” O’Neill said Wednesday. “His motion wouldn’t recommit it, it would destroy it.”

Michel Rejects Plan

Due to apparent White House pressure, however, Archer’s plan was rejected by House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.), another foe of tax overhaul, who said he would personally offer the only motion to recommit the tax bill.

Michel’s motion--an undisguised proposal to kill the bill by returning it to the tax panel with no instructions for rewriting--is viewed as much less likely to pass than Archer’s motion, which offered wary lawmakers some excuse for backing away from the tax plan.

If Michel’s motion is defeated, as experts predict, the House’s 433 members (there are two vacancies) would vote today on accepting the conference report on the tax bill. If the House then approves the report, the Senate is considered likely to follow within days, sending the measure to Reagan for his signature.

Democratic strategists appeared confident after Archer’s defeat that the tax package would win House approval with relative ease. Although one reliable head count showed only 104 of the 253 Democrats solidly behind the measure and another 35 leaning toward approval, congressional aides expressed confidence that at least 75 Republicans and a raft of wavering Democrats would join the ranks of supporters today.

‘A Lot of Undecideds’

“There are still a lot of undecideds and a lot of people leaning ‘yes,’ ” one key House Democratic aide said, “and we’ve still got to firm them up. But that’s what we’ll do in the next few hours.

“The bill’s going to pass. The question is by what margin.”

An aide to Rep. Philip M. Crane (R-Ill.), another ardent foe of tax overhaul, maintained late Wednesday that the battle was not over but admitted the odds are long.

“I think the strong votes for passing the bill are still anywhere from 20 to 40 short,” the aide, Gordon Coleman, said. But the corporate lobbyists, whose opposition usually is vital to the defeat of a crucial measure such as the tax bill, “have given it up,” he said.

Reagan Exhorts House

Reagan, who Tuesday had called the House vote the “decisive battle,” exhorted House members to approve “the hard work of the Senate and the conference” committee that prepared the final version of the bill.

He repeated his pledge to oppose any use of tax overhaul to boost personal tax rates later. “I trust you know that once this bill is enacted I will not support any legislation that raises its income tax rates,” he stated.

Staff writer Bob Secter contributed to this story.