Democrats Stepping Up Attacks on Bush : Politics: The leaders say the President’s economic plan would mainly help the rich. Sasser, strong defender of budget accord, now favors modifications.

Democratic congressional leaders, looking ahead to the 1992 presidential campaign and sensing that President Bush is increasingly vulnerable on the economy, intensified their attacks on him Wednesday for failing to pull the nation out of recession.

Once again, Democratic leaders claimed that the Bush Administration’s economic growth package now under review, which probably will include a capital gains tax cut, would mainly benefit the rich and do little for the economy.

“From no new taxes to creating 3 million jobs, George Bush has broken many of the economic promises he made as a candidate,” said House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.). “But what concerns me today is not the promises he’s broken, it’s the one he’s trying to keep: his capital gains tax cut for the rich.”

The Democratic offensive was marked specifically Wednesday by the call of Senate Budget Committee Chairman Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.) for Congress and the White House to reopen the year-old budget agreement--which was supposed to remain unchanged for five years--so that defense spending could be slashed and taxes cut for the middle class.

Sasser was following the lead of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), who Sunday proposed a reopening of the budget talks and a $72.5-billion tax cut for the middle class over the next five years to be paid for by a 5% cut in defense spending.

But Sasser’s announcement was significant because, until now, he has been a staunch defender of the budget agreement, which requires that new spending be offset by revenue-generating measures. It also severely restricts the reshuffling of funds from one segment of the budget to another.

Sasser insisted in an interview that he still wants to retain the broad outlines of the existing budget agreement to hold federal spending down. But he said that he believes the collapse of the Soviet Union means that defense funds can be used to pay for a tax cut and more domestic programs--even for further deficit reduction.

“I’m not for abandoning the budget agreement,” Sasser said. “But it is unrealistic to think we can write an agreement and not modify it at all.”

Sasser’s counterpart in the House, Budget Committee Chairman Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), sounded a note of caution Wednesday. Panetta said he fears a “bidding war” is about to break out in Washington, as Democrats and Republicans try to see which side can offer the bigger tax cut.

While he refused comment on Sasser’s specific proposals, Panetta said he believes that the existing rules of the budget agreement offer the only safeguard against fevered moves by Congress and the White House that would increase the deficit.

Other House leaders also were wary. Although House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) said Tuesday that he might support a tax cut this year, he did not offer a specific plan. And House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), who largely controls the tax-writing process in the House, strongly opposes any major tax cuts this year, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Still, Rostenkowski plans to meet with all of the Democratic members of his committee today to determine whether they want him to take up the Senate’s sudden push for an immediate tax cut for the middle class.