House Passes GOP Tax Cut
The House passed on Thursday a 10-year, $792 billion Republican tax cut bill that President Clinton has denounced as far too large and promised to veto.
Republicans said that in an age of huge budget surpluses, they could give Americans the tax relief they deserve and still assure the future solvency of Social Security and Medicare.
The vote was 223-208, with only four Republicans breaking ranks and voting against the measure. Six Democrats supported the GOP bill.
The proposal now goes to the Senate, which is expected to vote next week on a measure that differs in details but also provides nearly $800 billion in tax cuts.
President Clinton called the Republican bill risky, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Bill Plante.
"It would pile up $3 trillion in debt over the next two decades, right when baby boomers are starting to retire," the president said at a news conference.
"The president is wrong," Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., responded in a written statement. "It is not risky to give the American people their money back."
Mr. Clinton and the Democrats argued for a considerably smaller level of tax cuts, of around $250 billion. The Democratic alternative was defeated, 258-173.
The debate clearly defined differences between the parties, with Republicans saying the tax package represented the culmination of their small-government, lower-taxes philosophy and Democrats warning of a return to failed supply-side economics.
"It's not a trillion-dollar tax cut. It's a Christmas tree. It's decorated with every cut that you can think of for Republican supporters," said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. "Your bill is what we call in Harlem 'a trip to nowhere.'"
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told a House hearing it is more important to pay down the national debt than cut taxes. Reducing the debt, he said, would lower interest rates and put the government's books in better shape to meet the rising retirement demands of the baby boom generation.
But Rep. Bill Archer, R-Texas, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, said Democrats were "fighting ferociously to keep the money of the workers of America in Washington....We believe the people know best how to spend their money."
The Republicans' victory came only after daylong negotiations with rebellious moderates in their own party, reports CBS News Capitol Hill Correspondent Bob Fuss.
Their triumph could prove short-lived. Mr. Clinton, saying the tax cuts are three times larger than what he could accept, said he would not allow them to become law.