Dole Says Bush Won’t Hike Personal Tax Rate : Deficit: He cites such other sources of revenue as oil import fees, increased assessments on alcohol, tobacco.

President Bush will not agree to an increase in personal income tax rates despite his commitment to raising taxes as part of a deficit reduction pact with Congress, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said Sunday.

“Tax revenue increases--that may mean an oil import fee, or maybe a gas tax, or maybe an increase in sin taxes,” said Dole, referring in the latter case to excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco. “I’ve heard no one in the White House say it means raising tax rates.”

President Bush is “not going to raise personal income tax rates,” Dole said on ABC-TV’s “This Week with David Brinkley” program. “He’s not going to go along with that, unless I misread it--and I’ve been in almost every meeting.”

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) said such a rejection of an income tax hike would doom bipartisan negotiations to reduce the budget deficit.

“You can’t get there that way, Bob,” Moynihan said on the same program. “You have a right to tell the President this: If he’s as committed as you think, he’s headed for a crisis. . . . “

The exchange underlined the political difficulties congressional Republicans are experiencing in the wake of Bush’s abandonment last week of his “no new taxes” campaign pledge. It also may foreshadow significant problems in achieving a consensus on the budget before an automatic across-the-board $100-billion cut in spending occurs Oct. 1 under the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction law.

On the CBS-TV program “Face the Nation,” Republican political pollster Linda DiVall said Bush’s apparent reversal on the tax issue had angered many Republicans.

“I don’t recall a time where I’ve seen more anger within the Republican Party over how a President has led on a very important topic,” she said. “I think (the Administration) underestimated how clearly that ‘no new taxes’ mantra rang throughout the country, how much people wanted to believe that,” she said.

Asked whether Bush’s decision to renounce his “read my lips” campaign pledge meant that higher taxes definitely would be part of a deficit package, Dole responded: “Oh, he’s committed. No question about it.”

But those hikes should not be the kind most feared by average Americans--those that take a direct bite out of their paychecks, Dole said.

Higher income taxes are favored by Democrats who contend that the tax cuts of the Ronald Reagan years favored the rich. Specifically, many Democrats would like to see the elimination of a “bubble” in tax rates. Married taxpayers filing jointly with taxable incomes of $71,900 to $171,090 pay a marginal rate of 33%, while income above $171,090 is taxed at 28%. By making the 33% rate the top bracket, the inequality of the “bubble” would be eliminated while boosting federal revenues.

Moynihan said Democrats will not be the first to propose a specific tax increase during the budget negotiations, and would stick by the Gramm-Rudman target to force Republicans to agree to revenue increases as well as spending cuts. “Bob, don’t count on us to change the number,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.), meanwhile, acknowledged that a deficit pact “certainly” will include spending cuts in programs favored by Democrats. But in an appearance on “Face the Nation,” he reiterated his party’s reluctance to tamper with Social Security, and also declined to speculate on specific spending cuts.

“No prior commitments have been made, no prior decisions have been made, therefore there is no point in trying to identify individual programs now until the negotiations reach an agreement,” Mitchell said.

Rep. Lynn Martin (R-Ill.), who is running for the Senate in November, voiced the concern of many Republican candidates who fear that the President’s change of heart on taxes has undermined one of the party’s most clear-cut positions.

Martin, appearing with Mitchell on “Face the Nation,” declared she would never vote to accept a budget package that includes “new taxes, substantial taxes,” as opposed to increases in user fees and other lesser government levies.

“It’s the wrong time for a tax increase,” Martin said. “Regionally, I think it would be devastating for my area. So I am going to disagree. . . . We are talking about--and everyone knows it--new taxes. New substantial taxes. That is the wrong thing to do.”

Martin also criticized the role of Congress in the process.

“I do not believe, even if (a deficit package) includes spending cuts, that the Congress has shown any evidence that it will keep its word,” she said.

“I know this week we are talking about the President keeping his word. Someone at some time is going to have to focus on the Congress, which has had an unblemished record in breaking its word on spending.”