|
AllPolitics E-Wire -- March 31, 1997http://allpolitics.com A weekly briefing on U.S. politics: Toasting The Butchers: Part 2When George Bush sent national security advisor Brent Scowcroft to talk to Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng shortly after the Tienanmen Square massacre in 1989, then-Sen. Al Gore attacked Bush for "sending emissaries to toast the butchers of Tienanmen Square." So when Gore lifted a champagne glass with Li last week, the veep had to know that potential Democratic and Republican rivals were probably going to squirrel away copies of the videotape. Will it be a Dick Gephardt TV spot in late '99 in Iowa and New Hampshire? Stay tuned. The Latest NumbersIt's two weeks until the April 15 tax deadline. A new CNN-TIME survey finds slightly more support for changing the current tax system than two years ago. Forty-one percent of people surveyed call for major changes, and 22 percent want a completely new tax system. (In 1995, 22 percent wanted a whole new system and 34 percent wanted major changes.) (Sample: 1,018 adults, March 11-12, +/- 3 percentage points.) Tax Cut TimingCongress returns April 7 from its Easter break, amid explicit word that the Clinton Administration is ready to postpone tax cuts in the interest of a balanced budget agreement. "If there are those in Congress who feel, as there clearly are, that we should separate these two out and do a balanced budget first and then do the tax cuts second, we're open to do that," Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin said over the weekend. Quote of the Week"Tonight nobody knows who's going to go home with an Oscar. The only one guaranteed of waking up with a statue is Tipper Gore." -- Comedian Billy Crystal at the Academy Awards Transcript of the WeekBill Clinton talks about the Democrats' money woes at: http://allpolitics.com/1997/03/27/fdch/ Voter's VoiceFrom our e-mail on the timing of tax cuts, Ron Hathcock of Provo, Utah writes: "The real issue is freedom. When I was born (1953), my middle-class parents were paying less than 5 percent of their income in federal taxes. Today, I'm paying about 22 percent of my income in income tax, PLUS my share of Social Security AND Medicare taxes. We don't have control over most of our income. We are NOT free to spend money that's taxed away before we even see it. So, this citizen thinks that tax cuts should NOT be delayed, and that any and every federal program that can be disbanded or shifted back to the states for them to run AND fund should be." ------------------------------ AllPolitics' E-Wire is produced by the staff of AllPolitics' in Washington, D.C., and e-mailed each Monday. We're working to make E-Wire informative and useful, so let us know how we're doing, via e-mail to editor@AllPolitics.com Put "E-Wire" in the subject line. To subscribe to E-Wire, go to: http://cgi.pathfinder.com/cgi-bin/gdml2x/game/allpolitics/ewire and follow the instructions. To unsubscribe to E-Wire, go to: http://pathfinder.com/AllPolitics/newsletter/unsubscribe.html and follow the instructions. |
|
Copyright © 1997 AllPolitics All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this information is provided to you.