Senator Says Bush Pushing Too Hard for Tax Cut

Reuters ^ | Sat May 3, 2003 | Reuters t

[dgallo51]

Senator Says Bush Pushing Too Hard for Tax Cut Sat May 3, 3:37 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Independent Sen. Jim Jeffords said on Saturday the fervor for tax cuts has become a theology rather than an economic policy for some Republicans and warned President Bush (news - web sites) against pushing lawmakers too hard for his $550 billion package.

The Vermont senator bolted the Republican Party two years ago in a dispute with the White House over the way Bush and his Republican allies in Congress handled their drive for the $1.35 trillion tax cut that Bush signed into law in 2001.

Jeffords is an independent but votes with Democrats, who invited him to give their weekly radio address on Saturday. He said history was repeating itself in the current debate over the tax cut package Bush says is needed to boost stock prices and create jobs.

"The president is again proposing a budget that does not adequately fund America's needs and includes new tax breaks that are likely to force disastrous cuts in urgent and national programs and create horrendous future deficits," Jeffords said.

"When did standing on principle, speaking your conscience and representing your constituents become unacceptable in certain Republican circles?" he said.

FINANCING TAX CUTS WITH DEBT

Jeffords said Bush's proposed tax cut will be financed with borrowed money that the nation's children and grandchildren will eventually have to pay back. He also said the deficits threatened to explode just as the baby boom generation, born from 1946 to 1964, begins to retire and draw on Social Security (news - web sites) and Medicare.

"This fervor for tax breaks at the expense of all else demonstrates that there are some who see tax cuts not as a policy, but as a theology," Jeffords said. "Their belief that tax cuts will solve any problem is uncompromising, unyielding, and, sadly, undeterred by past experience."

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley in a recent interview with CNN that Republicans were unlikely to get everything they wanted if they hope to pass the tax cut through the closely divided Senate.

"If Republicans push too hard, you have what happened to us two years ago with Senator Jeffords leaving the party," the Iowa Republican said. He quickly added that he did not expect that to happen.

Bush initially proposed a $726 billion 10-year tax package that would accelerate scheduled income tax cuts and eliminate taxes on stock dividends. Lawmakers have been trying to fit his proposals into a smaller $550 billion amount approved by the House of Representatives and $350 billion approved by the Senate.

Democrats oppose big new tax cuts, arguing Bush's plan will add to deficits and lead to higher interest rates, benefit the wealthy and provide little stimulus to the soft economy.

The House is expected to act on its pared-down version of the tax cut next week. The bill would reduce tax rates on both dividends and the sale of stocks and other assets. It also would accelerate income tax cuts already scheduled.

The Senate hopes to act on its version next week as well. But members of the Senate Finance Committee are struggling to reach agreement on key components including dividend taxes and aid to cash-strapped states.

House Republicans have expressed frustration with the Senate where moderates worried about rising budget deficits have refused to support a larger tax cut.

"I am tired of trying to fit the Senate," Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, told reporters earlier this week.

"We've done what the president says, we have compromised from $726 (billion) down to $550 (billion) and if the Senate can't get its work done, that's just too bad," he added.

[dgallo51]

Why isn't anyone talking about boycotting "Made in Vermont" maple syrup? With Pat Leahy and Jumpin' Jim as Senators, they must be FRENCH!

[PhiKapMom]

I have been boycotting Vermont maple syrup since Jumpin' Jim Jeffords jumped! Would hate to have Leahy and Jeffords as my two Senators! UGH!

[annyokie]

[RobbyS]

that the nation's children and grandchildren will eventually have to pay back.It was only a few years ago they were talkiing about hhow to use the surplus! All this talk about the long-term is nonsense. The only that that is certain is that the social security system cannot continue on its present basis.

[Paleo Conservative]

It's time to trade Vermont for Alberta.

[exit82]

It's called "leadership", Jumping Jim, not "pushing too hard". But then, you wouldn't be able to recognize it as such anyway.

[Mean Daddy]

Juck Feffords.

[tomahawk]

Reuters is a joke. We're not "FINANCING TAX CUTS WITH DEBT", as they say, we're financing government spending with debt. Any moron who understands where taxes come from and where spending comes from understands the difference. Mental pygmies.

[supercat]

I wonder if the management at the local stores have arguments about how they're going to "pay for" a sale? After all, if the company normally sells 100 widgets/day for $100 and it cuts the price to $80 for a week, it will lose at least $2,000/day, and possibly much more if people decide to buy more than the usual number of widgets.

[supercat]

BTW, why does nobody ask if the country can afford to keep sending so much money to Washington?

[dwswager]

Jeffords jumped because he finally figured out that the Republican party was no longer the party of snotty rich liberals as opposed to the Democratic party which is the party of snotty middle class and poor liberals. He apparently missed the whole "A Choice, Not an Echo", Goldwater era and the Reagan Revolution.

[Cameron1]

Jeffords commenting on a tax cut.....LOL

You never see real fear in the eyes of a liberal like you do when you say the words "tax cut!"

The taxes belong to the people. Taxes are necessary to run the government. But there are too many unnecessary government programs designed for no other reasons than to get votes and they should be terminated and the money returned to the people from which it came.

[Paul Atreides]

I'd like to tell Mr. Jeffords what he can push too hard...

[chuckles]

If Dubya doesn't get the economic stimulus package he asks for, how can he be blamed for the economy? If I were him, I would scream to the hilltops every day that the economic stagnation belongs to the ANTI stimulus Senators that are blocking my plan. If he is blocked at every turn, how can he take the blame?

[geedee]

It's time to trade Vermont for Alberta.

With a Massachusetts kicker.

[dts32041]

Remember this, if you used the accounting practices of the US Government, you would be serving time for multiple felonies.

I just wish once some on say, budget, start from scratch, no base line, and do a real effing budget.

[T'wit]

When a liberal attacks Bush, it shows up as a Reuters "news" story. When a liberal speaks out on anything, it shows up as a Reuters "news" story. When liberals lie, cheat, steal, beat their wives, take bribes, get sloshed in public, impregnate teenaged girls, sell nuclear secrets, commit rape, wave their plumbing at their employees, stick a cigar where the sun don't shine or incinerate a church, the story will be suppressed in Reuters.

I theeenk there is a pattern here.

[dgallo51]

I'll drink to that!

[dgallo51]

I'll drink to that too!

[dgallo51]

What? You expect Reuters to employ business writers with an understanding of Capitalism and Economics? What a novel concept!