Strauss Urges 'Toughest' Program on Wages, Prices
White House anti-inflation czar Robert S. Strauss said yesterday President Carter should adopt ÛÏthe toughest possible" wage-price program he can, and not listen to those who contend it would hurt him politically.</br></br>At a breakfast meeting with reporters. Strauss said the ÛÏbest politicsÛª* for Carter would be to propose ÛÏa tough, tough, do-able program" that asks ÛÏsignificantÛ sacrifices from all sectors of the economy.</br></br>ÛÏI think if he came up with a year of national denial, of national austerity. the public would buy it, business would buy it and labor would buy it," Strauss said. ÛÏThe president has to lay it on the line.Û</br></br>StraussÛª remarks essentially countered those of another White House official on Monday who cautioned that a stringent guidelines program might prove CarterÛªs political ÛÏundoing," and urged the plan be weakened.</br></br>The developments came as Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall, trying to assure organized labor, yesterday told a steel workersÛª union convention the administrationÛªs new wage-price program wonÛªt burden labor more than other groups.