That was fast. I guess GWB isn't getting the warm reception he was looking for on his national tour.
Also, what's wrong with linking implementation to the actual surpluses? Wouldn't anything else, by definition, ignite deficits again? Where is the fiscal responsibility?
Link
Modified tax plan floated by GOP
Top Republican senators hinted at compromise, but still rejected "triggers" tying the cuts to surpluses.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott yesterday proposed providing for a "midcourse" correction to tax cuts. (AP)
By Brigitte Greenberg
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott raised the possibility yesterday that Congress could scale back President Bush's tax cuts if projected budget surpluses did not materialize - a shift apparently intended to win support from reluctant centrists of both parties.
The suggestion from Lott (R., Miss.) came one day after Bush indicated he might be willing to compromise on his plan to cut taxes by $1.6 trillion over 10 years and just a few days after a nationwide poll found that Americans would support a tax cut if it were automatically pared down in the absence of surpluses.
Bush has opposed automatic "triggers" that would make tax cuts contingent on reaching goals in paying down the national debt or having a certain level of surplus money available each year.
Income-tax relief passed the Republican-controlled House last week with little support from Democrats, whose help will be crucial if Bush's plan is to pass in a Senate that is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.
Lott said a trigger would inevitably undo the tax cuts. But for the first time, he suggested an alternative.
"I think that if you put a waiver in there for the president or if you had some sort of a midcourse adjustment opportunity where you sort of look at what's happening and set up a process - but a trigger, which is automatic, it's sort of like, now you see it, now you don't," Lott said on Fox News Sunday. He did not elaborate on how such an adjustment would work.
The trigger was proposed by Sens. Olympia J. Snowe (R., Maine) and Evan Bayh (D., Ind.), and several moderate Republican senators have joined the effort, including Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Susan Collins of Maine.
An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll released last week indicated that 73 percent of Americans would support a tax cut if tied to surpluses.
Sen. Phil Gramm (R., Texas), who sits on the Budget and Finance committees, said yesterday that a trigger would risk putting a financial "straitjacket" on the country. But like Lott, he appeared open to compromise.
"I think we can come up with a way of giving Congress an expedited consideration of something like a midcourse correction, but we can't lock the country into a straitjacket. It is a workable, responsible alternative. I think it's something we're going to look at, but in the end, the President is going to get this tax cut," Gramm said on NBC's Meet the Press.
He, too, did not go into detail about the "correction."
All the talk of a midcourse correction marks a change from the approach used to win passage in the House - where GOP leaders pushed the Bush plan through, as is, on a mostly party-line vote.
Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) said that would not work in the Senate, and Bush and his Republican allies must heal wounds caused by the House effort if they expected to win support.
"I think what happened in the House in fact will be interpreted by many Democrats in the Senate as almost an insult, a slap in the face to a real democratic process," Kerry said on ABC's This Week.
Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said on CNN's Late Edition that the administration made a "tactical blunder" in pushing the bill through the House without bipartisan support.
Senate Democrats, who generally favor a smaller tax cut, will not be ignored, said Sen. John Edwards (D., N.C.).
"The President's going to have to deal with us in the Senate, and I think he recognizes that," Edwards said on NBC.
Over the last two weeks, Bush has traveled to nine states to promote his tax cut and to pressure those states' Democratic senators to support it. Bush on Saturday also floated conciliatory language in newspaper interviews, telling the Washington Post: "I am willing to listen. There's a lot of opinions. There are a lot of opinions - there's a hundred opinions."
Among the compromise options on the table, according to Republican officials: reducing the amount by which the wealthiest would see their income tax rate drop.
Bush proposed cutting rates across the board, including dropping the top 39.6 percent rate to 33 percent. Republicans sources have suggested Bush might be open to lowering it to 35 percent instead, but would insist on a reduction in the top tax rate.
That might help with Democrats who argue that Bush's tax cut is too heavily weighted in favor of the richest Americans.
Sen. John B. Breaux (D., La.) said Bush was facing reality with his latest overtures.
"I think if we can do something that would address middle- and lower-middle-income people and not be quite so high on the top end, on the very top bracket, I think that's the potential for a good agreement," Breaux said on CNN.
Democrats have called for a tax cut about half the size of Bush's, saying more of the projected $5.6 trillion, 10-year budget surplus should be used to pay down the debt and fund other budget priorities such as education, prescription drugs for the elderly, and defense.
Lott said he thought Bush's rate reduction proposals, which would reduce the five tax brackets of 39.6, 36, 31, 28 and 15 percent into four brackets of 33, 25, 15 and 10 over five years, was a good idea.
"I think the President has got it right when he says no American should pay more than a third of their income to the federal government," Lott said.
But he said Bush's proposal to phase out estate taxes could undergo change. He said he would like to raise the exemption, now at $675,000, faster and take longer to eliminate the tax entirely. The Bush plan would phase out estate taxes over 10 years.
Lott also supports reducing capital gains taxes paid on the sale of stocks and other investments, which is not included in the Bush plan.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article includes information from Reuters.
Also, what's wrong with linking implementation to the actual surpluses? Wouldn't anything else, by definition, ignite deficits again? Where is the fiscal responsibility?
Link
Modified tax plan floated by GOP
Top Republican senators hinted at compromise, but still rejected "triggers" tying the cuts to surpluses.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott yesterday proposed providing for a "midcourse" correction to tax cuts. (AP)
By Brigitte Greenberg
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott raised the possibility yesterday that Congress could scale back President Bush's tax cuts if projected budget surpluses did not materialize - a shift apparently intended to win support from reluctant centrists of both parties.
The suggestion from Lott (R., Miss.) came one day after Bush indicated he might be willing to compromise on his plan to cut taxes by $1.6 trillion over 10 years and just a few days after a nationwide poll found that Americans would support a tax cut if it were automatically pared down in the absence of surpluses.
Bush has opposed automatic "triggers" that would make tax cuts contingent on reaching goals in paying down the national debt or having a certain level of surplus money available each year.
Income-tax relief passed the Republican-controlled House last week with little support from Democrats, whose help will be crucial if Bush's plan is to pass in a Senate that is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.
Lott said a trigger would inevitably undo the tax cuts. But for the first time, he suggested an alternative.
"I think that if you put a waiver in there for the president or if you had some sort of a midcourse adjustment opportunity where you sort of look at what's happening and set up a process - but a trigger, which is automatic, it's sort of like, now you see it, now you don't," Lott said on Fox News Sunday. He did not elaborate on how such an adjustment would work.
The trigger was proposed by Sens. Olympia J. Snowe (R., Maine) and Evan Bayh (D., Ind.), and several moderate Republican senators have joined the effort, including Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Susan Collins of Maine.
An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll released last week indicated that 73 percent of Americans would support a tax cut if tied to surpluses.
Sen. Phil Gramm (R., Texas), who sits on the Budget and Finance committees, said yesterday that a trigger would risk putting a financial "straitjacket" on the country. But like Lott, he appeared open to compromise.
"I think we can come up with a way of giving Congress an expedited consideration of something like a midcourse correction, but we can't lock the country into a straitjacket. It is a workable, responsible alternative. I think it's something we're going to look at, but in the end, the President is going to get this tax cut," Gramm said on NBC's Meet the Press.
He, too, did not go into detail about the "correction."
All the talk of a midcourse correction marks a change from the approach used to win passage in the House - where GOP leaders pushed the Bush plan through, as is, on a mostly party-line vote.
Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) said that would not work in the Senate, and Bush and his Republican allies must heal wounds caused by the House effort if they expected to win support.
"I think what happened in the House in fact will be interpreted by many Democrats in the Senate as almost an insult, a slap in the face to a real democratic process," Kerry said on ABC's This Week.
Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said on CNN's Late Edition that the administration made a "tactical blunder" in pushing the bill through the House without bipartisan support.
Senate Democrats, who generally favor a smaller tax cut, will not be ignored, said Sen. John Edwards (D., N.C.).
"The President's going to have to deal with us in the Senate, and I think he recognizes that," Edwards said on NBC.
Over the last two weeks, Bush has traveled to nine states to promote his tax cut and to pressure those states' Democratic senators to support it. Bush on Saturday also floated conciliatory language in newspaper interviews, telling the Washington Post: "I am willing to listen. There's a lot of opinions. There are a lot of opinions - there's a hundred opinions."
Among the compromise options on the table, according to Republican officials: reducing the amount by which the wealthiest would see their income tax rate drop.
Bush proposed cutting rates across the board, including dropping the top 39.6 percent rate to 33 percent. Republicans sources have suggested Bush might be open to lowering it to 35 percent instead, but would insist on a reduction in the top tax rate.
That might help with Democrats who argue that Bush's tax cut is too heavily weighted in favor of the richest Americans.
Sen. John B. Breaux (D., La.) said Bush was facing reality with his latest overtures.
"I think if we can do something that would address middle- and lower-middle-income people and not be quite so high on the top end, on the very top bracket, I think that's the potential for a good agreement," Breaux said on CNN.
Democrats have called for a tax cut about half the size of Bush's, saying more of the projected $5.6 trillion, 10-year budget surplus should be used to pay down the debt and fund other budget priorities such as education, prescription drugs for the elderly, and defense.
Lott said he thought Bush's rate reduction proposals, which would reduce the five tax brackets of 39.6, 36, 31, 28 and 15 percent into four brackets of 33, 25, 15 and 10 over five years, was a good idea.
"I think the President has got it right when he says no American should pay more than a third of their income to the federal government," Lott said.
But he said Bush's proposal to phase out estate taxes could undergo change. He said he would like to raise the exemption, now at $675,000, faster and take longer to eliminate the tax entirely. The Bush plan would phase out estate taxes over 10 years.
Lott also supports reducing capital gains taxes paid on the sale of stocks and other investments, which is not included in the Bush plan.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article includes information from Reuters.
