P.M. BRIEFING : Bush Labels Proposal to Lower Social Security Tax a ‘Charade’

President Bush today denounced as “a charade” a Democratic proposal to cut the Social Security payroll tax and said it is really an attempt to force him to raise other taxes.

Bush also promised that he will not acquiesce in any move that would raise taxes or lead to lower Social Security benefits for older Americans.

Reporters asked the President about the proposal by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) at the start of a meeting between Bush and visiting Turkish President Turgut Ozal.

“It’s an effort to get me to raise taxes on the American people by the charade of cutting them, or cut benefits, and I am not going to do it to the older people of this country,” he said. It was Bush’s first public comment on the Moynihan proposal, which has drawn support from Democrats and Republicans alike despite warnings from the White House that it was a trap for the GOP.

Moynihan suggested rolling back the recent Social Security payroll tax hike, saving workers $7 billion this year and $55 billion in fiscal 1991.

Another Democrat, Sen. Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina, has proposed a 5% value-added tax--a national sales levy--to raise $53 billion in 1991 and cover the revenues lost both by the Social Security tax cut and Bush’s proposal to lower the tax on capital gains.