Senate GOP passes bulk of Bush's tax cuts

Boy did I miss this last Friday:

President Bush won key congressional support yesterday for his bid to make deep tax cuts, as the House narrowly approved his budget blueprint and the Senate beat back efforts to slash the tax cut package by more than half.

I knew about the $100 billion the Senate culled from the plan to pay for the war, but I missed the failed vote to halve the tax cut plan. That effort was killed by a couple Democrats and Republicans who wanted NO tax cuts at all.

Note that this isn't a done deal. The conference committee will likely restore the $100 billion the Senate cut, and that would give both houses of Congress the chance to kill the package.

Both houses? Yup. The House will likely approve, but GOP House moderates only voted for the plan with the expectation that the Senate would do the dirty work for them and slice the plan in half. No one will ever expect House Republicans to show a spine, but there's always the possibility, if not the probability.

In the Senate, the "no tax cuts at all" crew -- McCain, Chaffee, and Hollings -- will get a second chance to kill the tax cuts.

If it passes, the deficit will explode beyond all reason. So the silver lining? A huge issue with which to slam Bush. (Ignoring for the moment that the Democrat who wins in 2004 will have to raise taxes to balance the budget and repair the fiscal damage wrought by Bush).

Posted March 24, 2003 06:15 PM | Comments (44)