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Senators introduce Bush tax cut

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January 24, 2001 

WASHINGTON-- (AP) - Two senators introduced President Bush's package of more than dlrs 1 trillion in tax cuts, but a House leader cautioned against prospects of quick passage, predicting an August date for clearing Congress.

Bush has made tax relief one of his top legislative priorities, saying that Congress should move rapidly in light of growing signs of a weakening economy. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott on Monday told CNN, "We ought to see how we can move it as early as possible. And that will be our focus, without getting too caught up in procedural questions."

But Rep. Tom DeLay, the House's third-ranked Republican, said after a meeting at the White House that congressional approval could come by August. Major tax packages must be coordinated with completion of a budget and normally take months to work their way through Congress.

Sen. Phil Gramm, a Texas Republican, with a bipartisan boost from Democratic colleague Zell Miller of Georgia, opened the campaign Monday for the Bush tax package, with both predicting the 10-year plan would eventually win wide approval in the Senate.

In introducing the bill on the Senate's first full working day of the new presidency, Gramm, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, said he was launching "a crusade to see this tax cut in its totality adopted."

Miller, the first Senate Democrat to endorse the Bush package, said he agreed with Bush that taxpayers knew better than Washington lawmakers how to spend their own money. He said he had been shocked since becoming a senator last year upon the death of Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell with how Congress was "slurping up the surplus" with new spending.

While many Democrats say there is a need for some tax relief, there is still widespread opposition to the Bush plan's size and composition.

It's "much too large" and would be bad for the economy, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, said Sunday on ABC.

Gramm, however, stressed, "We're not looking for a compromise that means that the working people of America get less." He said the package could get even larger.

The Bush proposal introduced by Gramm and Miller would cut taxes by dlrs 1.3 trillion in the 2001-2010 period, or according to some estimates, dlrs 1.6 trillion over the 2002-2011 period.

Among other things, the tax-cut plan would:

-Replace the current five tax rate brackets ranging from 15 percent to 39.6 percent with four brackets of 10, 15, 25 and 33 percent. This would cost the treasury dlrs 727 billion over a 10-year period.

-Double the child tax credit to dlrs 1,000 and reduce the "married penalty" paid by some couples filing jointly, costing dlrs 250 billion.

-Eliminate the estate tax, reducing tax revenues by dlrs 236 billion.

Actual consideration of the tax package won't begin until Bush submits his budget to Congress next month, and the Constitution requires tax bills to originate in the House, so the legislative process could take months.