Deficit Reduction Preferred to Tax Cut, Poll Finds : Policy: The split is 55% to 37%. The tension between the two options is at the heart of the debate over the budget, Times Mirror survey says.

Most Americans think it’s more important to cut the federal budget deficit than to get a middle-class tax cut, a Times Mirror poll has found.

Every segment of the population--including the middle class that would benefit most from a tax cut--says cutting the deficit should be a higher priority, according to results of the poll released today.

The finding appears to bolster the position of a number of senators, both Democrats and Republicans, that the public is willing to go without tax cuts proposed by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and President Clinton if it can be assured that the deficit is being cut.

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“The middle-class tax cut is something that people think would be nice to do, but it’s a secondary priority compared to reducing the deficit,” poll director Andrew Kohut said.

Asked which of the two should have a higher priority, 55% of poll respondents said cutting the deficit, while 37% said cutting taxes for the middle class.

Among respondents with a family income between $30,000 and $50,000 a year, the middle segment of the nation’s income distribution, the result was nearly the same: 57% said cutting the deficit was a higher priority. Republicans, Democrats and independents all gave similar replies.

The tension between cutting taxes and reducing the deficit is at the heart of the congressional debate over the federal budget because most experts say cutting taxes will reduce government revenues--and thus swell the deficit.

Gingrich, in the “contract with America” he authored as a platform for House Republicans, proposed tax cuts that would add up to an estimated $200 billion over five years. Clinton, in a counterproposal he dubbed the “middle-class bill of rights,” called for tax cuts of about $63 billion.

But an increasing number of senators have suggested putting deficit reduction first and delaying any tax cut.

The survey was conducted for the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press, a project of Times Mirror Co., owner of The Times. Results were based on telephone interviews among a nationwide sample of 1,209 adults from Feb. 9 to Feb. 12. For the total sample, there is a 95% probability that any error is plus or minus three percentage points.

The poll also found that public esteem for Clinton has risen noticeably over the last month; 55% of respondents said they had a favorable opinion of the President and 42% had an unfavorable opinion, compared with a 51%-46% margin in December.

Forty-one percent said they have a favorable opinion of Gingrich, compared with 37% who viewed him unfavorably. In December, before he became Speaker, 28% had an unfavorable view and 25% had a favorable opinion.

Only 19% of the respondents said they are following the actions of the new Congress closely, and more could identify Lance Ito as the judge in O.J. Simpson’s murder trial (64%) than could identify Gingrich as House Speaker (52%).

If the presidential election were held today, Republican front-runner Bob Dole (R-Kan.) would hold a narrow lead over Clinton, 52% to 45%, the poll found. Kohut said a large percentage of independent voters remains undecided--indicating that “the race is still quite open.”

Dole was the first choice of 49% of Republican respondents for their party’s presidential nomination, followed by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) with 13%, television commentator Patrick J. Buchanan (7%), Gingrich (7%), Gov. Pete Wilson (6%) and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander (4%).