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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SeachRE who wrote (390697)	4/11/2003 10:24:07 PM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 769670

GOP Moderates are trying to save our economy while Bush ignores it and tries to make it worse. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate leaders agreed on Friday to more than halve the $726 billion in new tax cuts sought by President Bush (news - web sites) in order to win approval of next year's federal budget, sparking a bitter and unusual rift with Republican counterparts in the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives earlier on Friday voted 216-211 to approve the plan, which projects record government budget deficits while making room for up to $550 billion in new tax cuts over the next decade. To win vital backing for the budget from Republican moderates worried about rising deficits and the cost of the war in Iraq (news - web sites), however, Senate leaders were forced to promise to limit any new tax cut package to no more than $350 billion. The budget only lays out the framework for Congress' actual tax and spending decisions later in the year. By including the tax cuts in the budget -- cuts which Bush says are needed to boost the weak U.S. economy -- they can be passed later by a majority in the closely divided, 100-member Senate rather than the 60 votes usually required. "This means that, at the end of the day, the tax cut side of the growth package will not exceed $350 billion," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican. "The reality is the Republican caucus is split." House and Senate Republican leaders had earlier arranged an unusual deal to clear the rest of the budget while agreeing to disagree on the size of the tax cuts until later this year, when a victory in Iraq might have strengthened Bush's hand. But the Senate's action will now make it very hard to push for any tax cuts above $350 billion, prompting a furious reaction from House Republicans who implied they had been double-crossed by their compatriots in the Senate. "A deal is a deal is a deal and around here you are only as good as your word," fumed House Republican Conference Chairman Deborah Pryce of Ohio. "The goodwill of any further dealings or negotiations between the House and the Senate is at stake." Two senior Senate Republican aides said the tax cut compromise had been personally approved by both Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles, an Oklahoma Republican. SENATE LEADERS UNDER PRESSURE "You can take (Grassley's) word," Nickles said. "If he says it's not going to be more than $350 billion, it's not going to be." Republican leaders were facing great pressure to clear a budget after lambasting Democrats for failing to do so last year, when they controlled the Senate. House and Senate tax writers plan to craft a final tax bill by early summer. The smaller tax cut would leave no room to eliminate taxes on corporate dividends, the centerpiece of Bush's economic plan. But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said the Senate vote was "certainly not" the last word on the issue. "The last word has to be an agreement reached between the House and the Senate on their two proposals," he said. Republicans say Bush's plan will jolt the economy, boost government revenues and eventually shrink federal deficits. Democrats argue it was his last round of tax cuts in 2001 that started the recent steep slide in the U.S. fiscal position and say the new cuts will make a bad situation worse. "This budget is not a document that represents a conservative approach to government," said North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad, the Senate Budget Committee's top Democrat. "It is radical and it is extreme. It says deficits don't matter."

To: SeachRE who wrote (390697)	4/11/2003 10:26:53 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Bushies vote no on efficiency and conservation, yes on huge Big Oil welfare. WASHINGTON - The House approved nearly $19 billion in tax breaks Friday for energy companies and power producers and set up a showdown with the Senate over energy policy, particularly oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge. The House-passed bill includes sweeping incentives for oil and gas development and a mix of tax and other financial breaks aimed at promoting the traditional fossil fuel industries. And it revived the long-standing fight over whether to allow oil companies access to the millions of barrels of crude oil beneath the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Three weeks ago, the Senate rejected drilling in ANWR, as the refuge is called, and Democratic senators — including several running for president — have vowed to block any energy bill that would expose the refuge to development. ANWR drilling has been a top White House energy goal. The House and Senate also are taking different paths on energy tax incentives. More than two-thirds of the $18.7 billion House proposal, covering 10 years, is aimed at helping natural gas, coal, and oil development. A slightly cheaper tax measure — about $16 billion — in the Senate focuses more on renewable energy, like development of wind power. Unlike the House, the Senate also gives a tax incentive to spur construction of an Alaska gas pipeline. The House bill was approved 247-175 after lawmakers rejected Democratic amendments to encourage energy conservation and reduce production subsidies. A proposal to require automobiles and sport utility vehicles to use 5 percent less fuel by 2010 failed, as did an attempt to eliminate the ANWR drilling. (* Bushies offer big-time payback to big-time campaighn contributors. 19 billion of our money to Big Oil and polluters, but no laws to save energy. That's un-American)