Reagan Sure Tax Plan Will Become Law : Tells Plant Workers, Small Business It Has Something for Them

CINCINNATI —  President Reagan today told small business executives that his proposed tax overhaul would bring a “substantial tax break” for small business, while assuring soap plant workers that it would also “make life easier for America’s working men and women.”

Addressing a gathering sponsored by the Cincinnati Business Committee and the Cincinnati Institute for Small Enterprise, Reagan predicted that Congress will pass his tax plan this year in spite of much congressional skepticism.

The plan, he said, would usher in “a new burst of economic achievement.”

Sets Record ‘Straight’

Speaking in a downtown hotel ballroom, Reagan said: “Many already understand that our plan will mean lower federal income taxes for most individuals. But there’s been some confusion about just what it would mean for business. Permit me to set the record straight.

“For small businesses, our plan will represent a substantial tax break,” he said, arguing that its simplified structure would give them a fairer chance to compete with large corporations that can “hire bigger and bigger teams of lobbyists and lawyers ever more skilled in taking advantage of the tax code.”

Earlier, speaking to workers at a Procter & Gamble Co. plant in suburban Ivorydale, named after the soap, Reagan said “a tax plan that doesn’t make life easier for America’s working men and women isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.”

Addressing the employees, Reagan said passing the tax bill this year presents “a challenge, I know, but I just don’t think that America should have to wait for fairness and the increased growth that lower tax rates will bring.”

“Some people have suggested publicly lately that I am so concerned about my tax plan that I am not concerned about the deficit.”

‘Nothing More Important’

But, he said, “there is nothing more important” than reducing the deficit and that Administration officials and “a few of our senators . . . are talking about a long-range plan aimed at a balanced budget.”

In his speech to the business group, Reagan said, “Of course, there are those who say that getting tax reform through Congress this year will be impossible.”

But, invoking the name of hometown hero Pete Rose, who last month set a major league base-hit record, Reagan said:

“Just as sure as (Babe) Ruth could hit homers and Rose can break records, during this session of the Congress, America’s tax plan will become law.”