Byrd Predicts Congress Won’t Hike Taxes

Senate Democratic leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) said Thursday that an “obstinate” President Reagan will have to be “a little more realistic in the light of the changes that the voters have forced upon them and us.”

Byrd predicted that with both houses of Congress now under Democratic control, lawmakers will force a reordering of Reagan’s defense spending priorities, stricter congressional oversight of U.S. activities in Nicaragua, strong trade legislation and an overhaul of campaign spending laws.

However, he suggested that Congress is not likely to initiate a tax increase, which many in both parties on Capitol Hill have said is necessary to put a major dent in the huge federal deficit. As a result, he conceded, it may be necessary to scrap the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction law’s strict timetable for balancing the budget.

Outlines His Agenda

Byrd was still clearly elated by the Democrats’ dramatic Senate victories as he outlined his agenda in a wide-ranging breakfast interview with members of The Times’ Washington Bureau.

He continued to express confidence that he will be reelected Democratic leader--and with his party in control of the Senate, majority leader--when Senate Democrats meet later this month for their biennial secret ballot to choose their leadership. Although challenger J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.) has said he is collecting enough votes to win, Byrd said: “It’s one contest that is not in doubt and I feel very comfortable with the vote count.”

Tuesday’s election returned the Senate to Democratic control after six years of Republican leadership and gave Democrats an even greater majority than they had previously enjoyed in the House.

‘Signals Rather Disturbing’

Thus, when the 100th Congress convenes in January, the President for the first time will face a Congress completely in control of the opposition. Reagan and his top aides have already warned that they will stick with their domestic and foreign agenda and could resort to heavy use of the veto to prevent Congress from rearranging national priorities.

“Some of the signals are rather disturbing,” Byrd said. “I get a sense here that this is the old us-against-them theory and we don’t need that. That’s not what people want. They’ve seen too much of that already.”

Democrats will not seek to weaken the nation’s defense, Byrd insisted, but could push for “a better balance” between spending on strategic forces, conventional weapons and readiness.

“We’re going to see our money spent more prudently,” Byrd said.

Running Confrontation

While he noted that Democrats generally have supported the President’s space-based Strategic Defense Initiative--often called “Star Wars”--Byrd suggested that Congress may pare the President’s requests for funds to develop the system.

Byrd also set the stage for a continuation of the running confrontation between Congress and the White House over control of funds spent supporting the Nicaraguan rebels, known as contras. “I would certainly not expect to see backdoor funding, under-the-table funding for any secret war down there,” he said. “We’ll listen to the recommendations, but they have to come in the front door.”

He disputed the President’s often-repeated prediction that Democrats, if they got control of Congress, would lead the way to a tax hike. “I believe that we can keep the nation on a declining (spending) line that leads to a balanced budget without a tax increase,” he said.

Won’t ‘Bleed the Nation’

But Byrd agreed that Congress may choose not to meet next year’s Gramm-Rudman target, which could require $70 billion or more in spending cuts if no deficit reduction is accomplished through tax increases. “I dare say that it’s not good to bleed the nation to death in making this approach,” he said.

Near the top of the Democratic agenda, he said, will be “making our country competitive in world markets again. It’s a national catastrophe. It’s a national embarrassment.”

Reagan, who adheres to a philosophy of allowing the market to operate freely, was able to stop congressional efforts this year to pass laws to more directly control imports. However, Byrd expressed optimism that a similar drive next year will meet with more success.

“Regardless of what the White House is saying up front, they’re going to have to be realistic,” the Democratic leader said.

He also said he plans to prepare campaign-funding legislation that will slow the congressional “money chase,” the drive to build reelection coffers that has increasingly preoccupied lawmakers in the past decade. The spiraling cost of campaigning has also discour1634166116entering congressional contests.

“The American people I think increasingly see this institution guided by special interests” that contribute to congressional campaigns, Byrd said. “My desire is to reduce the amount of spending that candidates can engage in, the amount of contributions that they can receive.” He added that he will support public campaign financing, similar to that established for presidential campaigns.