Thunder on the Right

Conservatives of various stripes wonder if Reagan is a Reaganite

Ronald Reagan's Administration has always been the object of invective from the left, and it always will be. Reagan is, after all, the most conservative President elected in the past half-century. But throughout his long march to the presidency, Reagan had the unfailing loyalty and visceral support of two overlapping constituencies: the morally righteous New Right and the fiscally indignant Old Right. But increasingly, Reagan's zealous supporters feel betrayed by the Administration, if not quite yet by the President himself.

Their festering disillusion erupted last week into outright revolt. The immediate cause was the ongoing congressional fight over a proposed bill, strongly supported by the President, to raise taxes by $98.9 billion over the next three years. The battle lines were drawn with special clarity on Wednesday, first at a series of no-nonsense meetings at the White House between Reagan and G.O.P. congressional leaders, and then at an evening strategy session attended by a disparate array of discontented conservatives.

Only too aware of the rumblings, Reagan endeavored to shore up his right flank. Speaking in Hartford to a convention of the Knights of Columbus, the Roman Catholic fraternal organization, he reaffirmed his support for constitutional amendments that would outlaw abortion and permit group prayer in public schools. Said Reagan to a standing ovation: "This national tragedy of abortion on demand must end."

Yet his expressions of solidarity on those social issues, no matter how heartfelt, probably will not appease the far right; after 19 months of soothing presidential rhetoric, it is impatient for action on its social agenda. Nor did Reagan, despite private appeals for loyalty, mollify his tax-hike opponents. Indeed, the tax battle is now forging a rare, rebellious alliance among the New Right, congressional Republicans and conservative businessmen. Says one White House adviser: "I have never seen such animosity from our constituent groups."

On Capitol Hill, Reagan's emerging nemesis is Republican Congressman Jack Kemp, the ardent supply-sider who was a main designer of the Administration's three-year 25% income tax cut passed a year ago. Kemp insists that he is not against Reagan himself or his policies overall, only the President's abandonment of tax-cutting supply-side doctrine. The smooth, good-looking lawmaker is trying to stir up opposition to the tax plan both in Congress and among outside lobbyists.

Reagan invited Kemp to the White House last Wednesday afternoon. They talked in the Oval Office for 20 minutes. The President argued that the tax increase is a compromise necessary to win further congressional budget cuts. "This," said Reagan, "is the price we've got to pay." Kemp was unconvinced. "The price is too high. I didn't come to Washington," he said, quoting with deliberate irony a Reagan line from April, "to raise taxes."