President Clinton made an offhand confession on Tuesday night that he had raised taxes "too much" in his first budget in 1993, and the remark drew mockery from Congressional Republicans today. Angry Democrats accused him of repudiating a package they had stuck their necks out to pass without a single Republican vote.

Speaking at a campaign fund raiser in Houston, Mr. Clinton said: "Probably there are people in this room still mad at me at that budget because you think I raised your taxes too much. It might surprise you to know that I think I raised them too much, too."

The President, who took office promising both a tax cut for the middle class and higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans, deferred the tax cut in favor of further reducing the Federal budget deficit. In the speech on Tuesday, he seemed to blame both Democrats and Republicans for forcing his hand, although he defended his decision as "the right thing to do." After the remarks caused a small furor on Capitol Hill this morning, the White House complained that they were being taken out of context.

But members of both parties in Congress, debating Republican plans for tax cuts that Mr. Clinton bitterly opposes as too deep, saw no such subtleties. The Republican National Committee faxed copies of the speech around town, and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Representative Bill Archer of Houston, held a news conference to say that Mr. Clinton "has finally come up with at least a half truth when he says he raised taxes too much; the full truth is he shouldn't have raised taxes at all."