Clinton Speech Lights Up Phone Lines to Talk Shows : Radio: Callers are divided about the merits of President’s plan, which has become the week’s hot topic on the airwaves.

From coast to coast, Americans reached for their telephones on the morning after President Clinton’s address to Congress, more often than not dialing the nation’s radio talk show hosts, who turned the Administration’s plan for tax increases and spending cuts into the hottest topic of the week.

Some of the callers were pretty hot, too, overwhelmingly denouncing Clinton’s tax proposals on two Seattle radio stations and echoing the angry charge by one caller to WLS radio station in Chicago that Clinton had “assumed the office of the presidency by lying and duping the American people.”

Other talk show hosts reported overwhelming support for the President’s plan. “I didn’t vote for Clinton but I was very impressed last night,” one caller told KABC radio host Michael Jackson in Los Angeles. “He’s someone who wants to work and wants to make things better.”

The calls hardly represented a scientific sampling of public opinion--and may even have been manipulated by Democratic and Republican efforts to encourage their loyalists to speak out. But at the very least they suggested that Clinton has captured the attention of the American people and kick-started what is certain to be a vigorous national debate over the economy in the coming weeks.

Seattle’s KING radio fielded calls largely supporting the President’s plan. “I like his stand on lobbyists,” said a caller who identified himself only as Sid. “He’s going to be very firm and very direct. He’s saying the American people are the ones who own this government.”

Two other Seattle radio stations reported that their calls were overwhelmingly against Clinton’s plan. Officials at KVI said that of the 750 callers who phoned the station during the day, 98% disapproved of the proposed tax increases. News radio station KIRO reported that 1,056 listeners responding to a call-in poll rejected the Clinton plan 70% to 29%.

In Los Angeles, KABC’s Jackson got an earful from callers on both sides of the issue. One woman, who identified herself as a doctor named Serena, called from her car phone to say that she was outraged by Clinton’s plan to cut Medicaid payments to doctors and raise taxes on the wealthy.

“Politicians vote themselves raises. Why cut payments to doctors. The waste is in the Administration. . . . How about a 20% cut across the board in government?” Serena asked. “I work about an 80- to 100-hour work week. I work hard and I’m going to get punished for it. What a stupid system we have in America!”

The doctor’s tirade prompted angry calls from other listeners, including one from a working mother, identified only as Laurie, who said that she too works “80 hours a week” for a salary that “doesn’t come close” to the doctor’s.

“I work very hard,” Laurie said. “I have a child. My husband works. I’m willing to make sacrifice. I make around $30,000 a year. Money is not the only measure of success. The country does not owe you money. A lot a people work 80 hours a week. Everyone has to make a sacrifice. Why are the wealthy always the most reluctant to give up something?” she asked.

Support for Clinton seemed firmer in the Midwest. From Chicago--if the calls to WLS radio talk host Roe Conn were any indication--came a sign that Clinton may be winning over the support of skeptical Ross Perot followers.

“I was very disenchanted with what President Clinton had to say” in his speech to the nation on Monday, said a caller named Gary, a Perot supporter from Aurora, Ill. “But I think he really rebounded last evening.”

Greg, another Perot supporter, added that he was impressed with Clinton’s promise to “do away with welfare as we know it.” If Clinton keeps that promise, said Greg, “then I will vote for him next time.”

But Cathy from Naperville, Ill., was madder than mad. Clinton, she said, was “duping and lying to the American people” and “should be impeached and charged with fraud.” Her solution to the budget deficit would to “just stop spending” and “freeze spending in every department, everywhere across the board . . . for a couple of years.”

Most of the calls to talk show host John Matthews at KPRC in Houston railed against the Clinton plan.

“I am definitely opposed to the taxes,” said a caller named Vanessa, whose opposition to a tax increase was typical of the calls received by the conservative talk show host. “We pay over 50% of our income to local, federal and state taxes and that’s ridiculous. If the Administration cannot do anything with that, then I believe that we need a new government. They might as well hang it up,” Vanessa said.

Encouraging this line of talk, Matthews declared that the “entire idea of the rich not paying their fair share of their taxes is nothing more than a lie perpetuated by the liberal Democrats.”

In Denver, however, most of the calls to KYBG’s Peter Boyles Show supported Clinton’s tax plan.

“I’m a small-business owner and we’ve all got to pull together,” said a caller named Paul, who added that he is a registered Republican. “I drive 106 miles round trip a day. I know it’s going to cost me more, but if we don’t do it, who is going do it. . . ? It’s a real bummer that people are attacking the man (Clinton). I’m a Republican but we’ve got to give the guy a chance,” he said.

Contributing to this story were Times researchers Doug Conner in Seattle, Lianne Hart in Houston, Ann Rovin in Denver, D’Jamila Salem in Los Angeles, Tracy Shryer in Chicago and Anna M. Virtue in Miami.