P. M. BRIEFING : Foley Hints Democrats Will End Policy of Avoiding a Tax Hike

House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) suggested today that congressional Democratic leaders this election year may drop their 1989 policy of refusing to back tax increases without first winning President Bush’s support.

Talking to reporters after a joint news conference with Senate Democratic leader George J. Mitchell of Maine, Foley said Democrats may opt to go out on the tax increase limb on some issues despite White House opposition.

Foley was asked if last year’s Democratic leadership position of refusing to propose any tax increases without first getting Bush’s support had changed.

“I’m not sure,” Foley said. “It’s essentially still the policy that we’re not interested in engaging in quixotic activities that are not going to produce legislation.”

But pressed further, he said a Democratic push for some revenue measures that lack Bush’s support may occur this year.

“That’s possible,” he said. “I don’t want to lay down hard and fast rules here. There’s no purpose in trying to decide at this juncture what possibly could or could not be done and announce irrevocable policies about it.”

During the news conference, Mitchell noted that during the eight years of the Reagan Administration, Reagan “proposed and supported and signed into law 13 tax increases and in the process convinced everyone in America that he was against all of them.”

“President Bush has got the (anti-tax) words down right but it remains to be seen whether he has the political skill to (accomplish) the same result,” Mitchell said.