GOP Senators Pitch Tax Cut

It's your money. That's the message from Republican Senate leaders who are trying to counter President Clinton's proposals on spending an estimated $4.4 trillion surplus over the next 15 years.

The Republicans want to pass a 10 percent across-the-board tax cut.

"We're not talking about 'giving it back' to taxpayers," said Majority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla. "We're saying to taxpayers, 'It's yours. We shouldn't take it from you in the first place.' "

Nickles was joined by six other Republican senators at a Thursday news conference to push the Republican plan.

They heaped abuse on Mr. Clinton's plan to put most of the expected surplus into shoring up Social Security and to fund dozens of programs.

President Clinton's State of the Union address "lasted 77 minutes and had 77 new spending proposals," Nickles said. "It was the most expensive speech, page for page, minute for minute, in American history... The only interest group left out was the taxpayer."

Sen. William Roth, R-Del., said the Senate Finance Committee would hold hearings on the tax cut in February in an effort to maintain its legislative momentum. Senate Republicans killed the House Republicans' tax cut plans last session when time ran out and Senate Democrats gained a veto over the debate.

They'd like to avoid that result this year.

The Republicans have also recognized that their previous tax cut ideas - which emphasized capital gains, estate taxes and the marriage tax - may have been too complicated or too narrowly targeted to sell to a public wary of the way Congress rewards its friends and leaves the bill for the rest.

"The across-the-board tax cut is simple," said Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn. "You don't have to be a lawyer or an accountant to understand it."

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said cutting taxes is essential because the surplus won't last long under Mr. Clinton's 2care. "If we leave it, they will take it," she said.

Written By Rex Nutting, CBS MarketWatch