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03/08 14:49 Bloomberg.com
Bush Aims to Fuel Tax Cut Drive as House Vote Nears (Update1)
By Holly Rosenkrantz
Washington, March 8 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush is taking his $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut plan on a campaign swing to three states where he'll seek to use popular support to tweak legislators who aren't on his side.
Bush travels today and tomorrow to North and South Dakota and Louisiana, states that he won in the presidential race. They're also home to Democratic senators who either are up for re-election next year or among the most vocal critics of his tax cuts. Bush said he wants ``as many'' Democrats on his side ``as we can get.''
``The message is loud and clear that we've got ample revenues to fund our priorities, pay down debt'' and ``send money back to the people who pay the bills -- the taxpayers,'' Bush said before leaving the White House.
The trip comes as the House of Representatives is set to hand Bush his first big legislative victory by passing the largest piece of his tax cut. Members of both parties say they expect the House, with 220 Republicans and 211 Democrats, to vote along party lines for the biggest installment of Bush's plan. It faces tougher opposition in the Senate, where the parties are split 50-50 and two Republicans have suggested they may not vote for the tax cut.
``I'll be going to states where we we've got a good chance of convincing members in states where there may be some obstinance,'' Bush said this week. He said he chose states ``where a majority of folks saw it my way when I was running for president.''
Working on Members
Senators Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, both Democrats, are up for re-election next year and Bush won both states in the Nov. 7 election. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has said Republicans will pressure Landrieu -- as well as Democrat Max Cleland of Georgia, whose state Bush visited last week -- to vote for the tax package.
Landrieu said Tuesday she's prepared to vote against Bush's plan because tax cuts must ``be done in the context of a total budget.''
``We'll be working members all the way through the process,'' Bush said yesterday.
North Dakota also gave Bush a majority of votes and its two senators, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, have blasted Bush's tax cuts. Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota is trying to hold fellow party members to a smaller, $750 billion tax cut plan. He's also leading the Democratic charge that Bush's plan is too expensive and will create budget deficits.
``The people of my state have indicated to me that they strongly support a tax cut,'' Daschle said. ``But they have also indicated equally strongly that a tax cut should be a responsible one.''
Shifting Priorities
Bush proposes shifting budget priorities to keep overall federal spending growth to about 4 percent. Spending would be cut for 10 of 26 federal agencies while growing for the Education and Defense departments. The centerpiece of his plan, as it was in the election campaign, is the tax cut. Bush would reduce and consolidate marginal tax rates, eliminate the estate tax and scrap the so-called marriage penalty that hits some two-income couples.
During his trip this week, Bush will meet with farmers and hold campaign-style rallies at a university and an airport hangar. The North and South Dakota Democratic senators said his message won't resonate with residents of their states.
``If President Bush meets with 100 ordinary South Dakotans, 93 of them will be from families who make less than $75,000 a year. Sixty-three of them will be from families that make less than $30,000 a year,'' Daschle said.
``Yet the tax cut that Governor Bush proposed first, and now President Bush in his current position, provided 43 percent of the tax relief to those who make on the average over $900,000 -- not many South Dakotans in that category.''
A television station in South Dakota invited Bush and Daschle to debate the tax cut plan. Bush declined, spokesman Ari Fleischer said. ``That's not the purpose of his trip,'' Fleischer said.
Bush will spend the weekend at his ranch in Texas and continue his tax tour Monday in Florida.
