An Intricate Pas De Deux On Taxes (3/24/97)
E-Mail: Jack Kemp On GOP Tax Cut Plans (3/20/97)
Looking For Budget Progress (3/19/97)
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Momentum Grows For Separate Tax Cut Vote
Senate may join in a strategy to pursue a balanced budget agreement first
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 27) -- With House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton already on board, Senate budget writers may join in a strategy to pursue a balanced budget agreement first, then vote separately on proposed tax cuts.
Republican aides told The Associated Press that Senate leaders may follow a path similar to what Gingrich and the administration have signaled, deferring action on tax cuts until there is a vote to balance the federal budget by 2002.
Here's how it would work: The Senate would approve a budget resolution to end deficits, with tax cut language a part of the plan. But it would take additional legislation later actually to put the reductions into place.
Although the budget and tax rates are inextricably linked, the strategy to separate them temporarily may help Republicans counter accusations that they would pay for the cuts by slashing popular government programs. In 1995, combining spending cuts and a $270 billion, seven-year tax reduction proved a public relations disaster for the GOP. Clinton vetoed that plan.
Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, favors an estimated $77 billion in tax cuts over five years, but a final vote would depend on action by lawmakers to eliminate deficits by 2002.
Domenici's package of tax cuts could grow to $140 billion, although that would require renewal of the expiring 10 percent airline ticket tax and other taxes due to lapse.
The $140 billion figure is $40 billion more than what the administration has proposed, but $60 billion less than Senate GOP leaders had suggested in January.
Some Republicans have criticized Gingrich for suggesting the tax cut deferral, saying he was abandoning basic GOP principles. But he has suggested it was a matter of tactics and timing, not a permanent abandonment.