Senate approved 51-48 an amendment to the Budget resolution cutting the Bush tax cut to $350 b and diverting the other half of the tax cut funding to social security. The vote doesn't kill the $700 b tax cut but means any tax cuts beyond $350 b would require 60 votes in the Senate. For those opposed to any tax cuts, these doesn't fully achieve your goals, but it does mean that the largest tax cut will likely be $350 b (could get increased in the conference committee after both chambers pass the bill). For those favoring the Bush plan, it makes it VERY hard (if not impossible) to get anything that approaches the $700 b mark.
Well that's good to hear, personally I believe that should scrap it all together and use some of it to fund the war and the rest can either go to reducing the budget or increasing spending on some programs.
How the F can Bush seriously propose a tax cut the day after he announces the war is going to cost at least $75 billion? How are we supposed to pay for it AND cut taxes?
Good ol' Republican borrow and spend! Who cares about fiscal responsibility when it's our grandkids who go bankrupt trying to pay the bill? We'll all be dead by then so spend like a drunken sailor, George!
I don't think it's Bush proposing a tax cut, but merely an extension of the cuts that were passed last year. Wasn't it supposed to last for a few years?
Hey, it's just more evidence that the only real difference between Democrats and Republicans is the word that comes before "...and spend." With Democrats that word is "tax." With Republicans that word is "borrow."
the tax cut was a mix of new taxes and extending the tax cuts from the first bush tax cut. he didn't propose it today, the Senate budget had included the tax cuts determining funding levels for FY04. it basically left a hole in the budget for the 700 b tax cut and that hole just shrunk to 350 b.
I say let the oil companies pay for it. Maybe then Dumbya can give another *wait-for-it* ... tax cut.
Whoops. Forgot about dividend exclusion didn't you. Also, rate cuts are an acceleration of cuts that were supposed to be phased in over a longer period. And other stuff. I'm waiting for the growth factor coming out of Middle East revitalization that will magically wipe away piled-up deficits. Republican finance fantasyland ... David Stockman, where art thou?
> I'm waiting for the growth factor coming out of > Middle East revitalization that will magically wipe > away piled-up deficits. It'll happen, but right now it is a race to see if they will take place before the next election.
Right now Bush Jr. needs the war done by the end of the year to even have a go at the election. The presidential election cycle will be an accelerated version of the Johnson and Nixon years.
Here's a pretty empirical look at Bush's fiscal policy: While President Bush is obviously aware of the benefits and the need to cut taxes as a way to trigger economic growth, the government continues to expand, bureaucratic programs blossom, and talk of eliminating entire government departments is a distant memory. No, Bush is no Reagan. And despite the self-proclaimed party of limited government controlling the White House and the Congress, it continues to move further and further away from the limited government envisioned by our founding fathers.