	u s treasury s baker opposes tax increase u s treasury secretary james baker said that he opposes a federal tax increase to help reduce the budget deficit and favors spending cuts instead i don t think it s a tax increase is a very good idea and i m quite confident that president reagan doesn t think it s a very good idea baker said in an interview on cable news network s moneyline television program he said u s taxpayers are taxed at a rate of pct of gnp which is traditionally where it has been but the federal government is spending at a rate of pct of gnp baker said spending cuts are clearly the best way to cut budget deficits baker said he opposed a stock transactions tax proposed by house speaker jim wright d tex or other special taxes the stock transfer tax would be a particularly unfortunate approach to take the treasury secretary said he said the united states has some of the most efficient capital markets in the world and new taxes would impair efficiency on the international front baker said banks must do more lending to developing countries he was questioned about this after the standard and poor s corp downgrading today of the debt of six major money center bank holding companies largely because of their heavy developing nation loan exposure baker said that developing countries must adopt free market economic policies such as in the united states he said capital flows will be required to support the needed reforms in the economic systems of those countries the money must come either through equity or debt and baker said that developing nations investment regimes do not support enough equity investment so you ve got to have some debt there commenting on the u s  deficit baker said i think you re going to see a to billion dlr reduction this year reuter 
