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To: Boplicity who wrote (9423)	1/29/2001 12:14:07 AM
From: Boplicity	Respond to of 13572

Tax is all but a done deal, even the dems on the band wagon. <<Lott Predicts Passage of Tax Package by July 4 By Lori Santos Reuters WASHINGTON (Jan. 28) - The Senate Republican leader predicted on Sunday a tax package of at least $1.5 trillion, even larger than proposed by President George W. Bush, would pass easily before July 4. Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, appearing on the ''Fox News Sunday'' program, also said he might support a move now under consideration by the administration to reduce the federal taxes withheld by the IRS so people have more money to spend to help spark the economy. ''We have excess cash. We have a slowdown in the economy. So any immediate injection into private hands, where people can save it or spend it the way that would be helpful to the economy, would be very positive,'' Lott said. ''So I'm attracted to the idea but I'd want to make sure I knew how that would be done.'' The question of tax relief dominated the Sunday talk show circuit where there was general agreement that last week's blessing for a tax cut from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan had galvanized support for a broader, more expeditious effort. ''What is changed I think is whether or not we can put more money in people's pockets sooner by accelerating portions of the tax cut,'' said Bush's chief economic adviser, Lawrence Lindsey, on CNN's ''Late Edition.'' ''We're going to have one. The only question is the size of it,'' added Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat. Though Greenspan did not specifically endorse Bush's tax cut proposal Lindsey said would cost only $1.3 trillion, he and other leaders were discussing proposals for quicker action, either in the form of the withholding changes or by making the package retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year. ''I do think it's important that we have the money in people's paychecks as soon as possible and getting withholding changes would achieve that,'' Lindsey said. Vice President Richard Cheney, on the Fox News Sunday program, said, ''We've talked about making the rate reductions retroactive to the first of the year, or beginning to reduce withholding as soon as possible.'' ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN Even House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt said the economic slowdown now warranted a larger tax cut than Democrats had previously endorsed and that it now should be across the board and not targeted just at the middle class. ''We do need to have, I think, a higher number than perhaps we had last year, which was about 250, $300 billion over 10 years,'' Gephardt told ABC's ''This Week'' program. ''I now think you have got to come up, maybe double that amount, maybe even as much as 700, $750 billion over 10 years.'' ''I think there is room for rate cuts,'' he said, while adding that the last large tax cut, in 1981, ''resulted in 13 years of the highest deficits this country has ever had.'' ''We ought to be conservative...Everybody ought to get a tax cut but the bulk of it needs to go to the people that really need it the most.'' Lott said the Senate first would tackle a budget resolution that likely would not be completed until May. But, he added, ''We will have a tax cut that President Bush proposes done before the Fourth of July, hopefully in late May or early June.'' He said the bill would likely be slightly different than Bush's blueprint, including possibly making some parts retroactive, as well as including a cut in the capital gains rate to go with the across-the-board reduction in income taxes proposed by Bush. ''I think they will get every bit of that (Bush's proposed $1.3 trillion tax cut) and it may actually move up some,'' Lott said. ''I think that it will be at least $1.5, $1.6 trillion.'' Lott also said he expected most of the Senate's 50 Republicans to support it, as well as some Democrats. ''Right now in the Senate we're looking at close to 60 for a significant tax cut,'' he said. Cheney said Bush would prefer the package remain intact to speed its passage but that the president did not expect lawmakers to ''simply take our package, stamp it passed and send it back to us.'' ''I would expect there will be some changes made, but if it moves in the basic direction the president has enunciated and we do get rate reductions and some of those basic reforms, I would expect that he is certainly going to be amenable to working with the Congress to get a good bill,'' Cheney said.>> Greg