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Thursday, Mar. 11, 2004

By a 51-48 vote, the GOP-dominated Senate agreed to require 60 votes for tax cuts considered over the next five years that are not paid for with other savings.

That requirement could doom all but the most popular tax reduction plans in the 100-member Senate, which Republicans control with 51 seats. It also would complicate Republican efforts to deliver the core of Bush's plan for reviving the economy, making $1.1 trillion worth of tax cuts permanent that will otherwise expire by 2011.

The provision, added to a $2.36 trillion budget bill that the Senate was debating, could disappear by the time House-Senate bargainers produce a compromise spending plan, perhaps next month. The GOP-run House is sure to strongly oppose the language.

Even so, passage of the plan was a setback for the White House and GOP leaders, who lobbied heavily against it but saw four moderate Republicans vote yes anyway. Its approval underscored the political potency of record deficits, which are expected to approach $500 billion this year.

Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., chief sponsor of the approved proposal, said it "makes it harder for this body to make deficits worse. ... That's as it should be."

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles, R-Okla., said the plan would throw obstacles before the GOP agenda of keeping tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 from reverting to earlier, higher rates.

"If you want to keep tax levels where they are today, adoption of this amendment is going to make it a lot harder," he said before the vote.

Minutes earlier, the Senate, by a mostly party-line 52-47 vote, rejected an effort by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., that would have forced Republicans to garner 60 votes for this year's tax reductions only.

Among those voting for the provision was Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., his party's presumptive presidential nominee, who altered his schedule to attend what was expected to be a close vote.

In a separate move, the Senate voted 95-4 to restore $6.9 billion the budget would cut from Bush's $421 billion defense proposal for next year.

Nickles had proposed the reduction as part of his plan for easing record deficits. But pro-Pentagon Republicans, led by Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., and Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, forced the issue and with troops in the field were supported eventually by Nickles and most other lawmakers.

Across the Capitol, House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, backed away from his earlier plan to cut $2 billion from Bush's defense plan, clearing the way for his committee to approve its own budget on Thursday. Defense hawks in the House had rebelled against the cuts.

Congress' budget sets tax and spending guidelines for lawmakers for the year, but actual changes are made in later legislation.

The Senate GOP's plan for cutting taxes this year -- with an $80.6 billion, five-year price tag -- is dominated by three popular proposals to extend tax reductions set to expire next year.

They are an expansion of the bottom 10 percent income tax bracket to cover more people; the easing of taxes on married couples; and the $1,000 per child tax credit that would drop to $700 without action. They are expected to pass Congress easily this year, no matter how many votes are needed.

They are also expected to include a less popular fourth proposal to move up by one year -- to 2009 -- the year the estate tax is supposed to expire.

Feingold's provision would restore budget rules that expired in 2002. A weaker version has been in effect since last year.

The prospects for Feingold's amendment were seemingly damaged earlier Wednesday when Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., a former budget committee chairman and respected deficit fighter, said he would not co-sponsor it.

Domenici had considered co-authoring Feingold's plan, but didn't want it to take effect until next year. He denied that he had backed away from it at the request of the White House and Senate GOP leaders.

Crossing party lines were Republican Sens. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and John McCain of Arizona; and Zell Miller, D-Ga. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., recovering from surgery, did not vote.

Most tax cuts that Bush wants extended will expire later this decade, mostly after 2010. He has proposed extending tax cuts worth $1.1 trillion over the next decade, $1 trillion of which expire after 2009.

© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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