Energy Tax

Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee confronted a pleasant dilemma Thursday--how to divvy up $30 billion in tax breaks among competing demands from business, energy users and troubled urban areas. The issue arose as the panel began the task of considering President Clinton's request for $337 billion in new taxes and $95 billion worth of tax breaks over the next five years--key elements of his deficit-reduction package.

The House Ways and Means Committee, kicking off a three-day weekend of meetings on tax overhaul legislation, voted Friday to revamp many popular energy tax credits and to put new limits on tax credits for rehabilitating old buildings. The committee also voted to restrict insurance industry tax deductions but balked at President Reagan's proposal to tax the increasing value of whole life insurance policies.

1993 should be the Year of the Taxpayer. But if the Senate can't muster enough courage to defeat President Clinton's $275-billion tax-increase plan, 1993 will be remembered simply as the Year of the Tax. The good news is that the American people are catching on. Take a look at Los Angeles and Texas. In L.A., voters elected Richard Riordan, who will be the first Republican in three decades to run the city.

President Clinton on Tuesday offered wayward House Democrats a compromise designed to win over enough votes to pass his troubled economic package, saying he will accept some limits on future spending for Social Security, Medicare and other big entitlement programs. Clinton summoned several dozen House members to the White House in an effort to quash a rebellion over his spending and tax proposals two days before a crucial floor vote, but the outcome remains uncertain.

With Congress finally ready to focus on the details of the Clinton Administration's long-term economic agenda, anxiety in Washington is rising over a troubling political question: Can President Clinton win approval for two successive rounds of major tax increases? Clinton's economic plan is dominated by one of the largest tax increases in American history, including higher energy and Social Security taxes on the middle class and higher tax rates for the wealthy and corporations.

In the expanding debate over Bill Clinton's economic plan, two Southern California-based oil companies have parted company with other energy firms by supporting the President's proposed energy tax. Most out of sync with other companies is Atlantic Richfield Co., which vigorously supports a tax on energy--in clear opposition to the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's main lobbying group. Arco Chairman Lodwrick M.

Though President Clinton has yet to unveil his economic plan for the nation (he does that tonight), the outlines of his program have been spelled out in the past week. Here is how it looks California is going to be affected: Small Businesses Clinton plans to cut capital gains taxes for investments in start-up businesses that may help create new jobs in California, as people laid off from some of the state's more troubled industries are encouraged to start businesses of their own.

So you just paid your taxes. You're like millions of other Americans, wondering why this annual Rite of April has to be so agonizing. You don't like it one bit. It costs you money. It makes you cynical. Well, guess what: It's likely to get worse, especially for high-income taxpayers, entrepreneurs, investors and many retirees, the experts say. President Clinton's plans for the Byzantine, 1,200-plus section U.S.

Just as some kids become chocoholics, some politicians become taxaholics. Bill Clinton, for one, is starting to look like one--which helps explain his declining job approval, the growing skepticism toward his economic pro gram and the resurging popularity of America's fiscal watchdog, Ross Perot. Public concern about rising tax burdens is well-founded.

The Democrats in the House of Representatives had scarcely finished celebrating their nail-biting passage of President Clinton's economic plan last week when Kay Bailey Hutchison began fashioning a spear from their success. In Washington, the House victory is being hailed as a sign of political recovery for Clinton. But in Texas the vote has just provided another weapon for Hutchison, the Republican candidate in Saturday's special election to fill the U.S.