Perot Poll Says Clinton Budget Is Not Popular

Almost half of Americans oppose President Clinton’s budget plan and two-thirds believe that he has broken his promise not to raise taxes on the middle class, a poll commissioned by Dallas billionaire Ross Perot shows.

The results, released Wednesday, also show that 53% of those polled want to reduce the deficit through spending cuts alone, and that 55% oppose a value-added tax to pay for a national health care program. Such a levy, resembling a national sales tax, is applied at each production step of a product.

“This ties in with what I hear on the road . . . from real people,” said Perot. “People are only willing to pay taxes to balance the budget and pay down the debt. There’s little or no interest in increasing spending.”

Perot recently paid for two prime time network “infomercials” as part of his stepped up criticism of Clinton’s budget plan. During the first of the programs, he asked for written responses from viewers, but critics called the results unscientific.

The poll released Wednesday was conducted by telephone Sunday and Monday by Gordon Black of Rochester, N.Y. Black surveyed 1,340 adults selected at random. The sampling has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, the pollster said.

“You want scientific . . . for all you do, this poll’s for you,” Perot said.

Perot and Black did not release a detailed methodology of the poll, and some of the questions paralleled Perot’s criticism of the Clinton plan. Perot’s poll results varied with independent polls in some areas--a Gallup survey done April 22-24 found 55% approval for Clinton’s economic plan--but coincided with others. Gallup found that 59% say the tax increases in the plan go too far, for example.

Other results of the Perot poll:

* Sixty-seven percent agree with the statement that “the President and Congress are much more committed to tax increases than to spending cuts.”

* Sixty-eight percent agree that “if things continue the way they have been, President Clinton will be a one-term President.”

* Forty-seven percent believe the Republican Party has not been very effective in suggesting alternatives to the proposed Clinton budget.

Perot said that the poll results have been forwarded to the White House.

“If we were to send a message, I’d say we do not have to solve all the problems in the world in 100 days,” Perot said.