Democrats Fail to Override Veto of Tax-Cut Bill

The House defeated an attempt Wednesday to override President Bush’s veto of the Democratic tax-cut bill, providing another setback for the Democratic leadership, which had promoted the legislation as a potential election-year issue.

Democratic leaders not only failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed for a veto override, lawmakers defeated the proposal, 215 to 211. Some 52 Democrats joined 163 Republicans in opposing the override.

The action is expected to kill prospects for tax-reduction for the remainder of the 1992 election campaign. Because two-thirds majorities are needed in both houses to override a presidential veto, the Senate will not vote on the issue.

Both Bush and the Democrats have said that they plan no further action--except to blame each other for the measure’s defeat. The President has taken the offensive against Congress, this time blaming the lawmakers for not cutting spending enough.

The leadership’s failure to win even a simple majority climaxed a series of frustrations for Democratic congressional leaders, who had been counting on the tax-cut issue to provide them with grist for the presidential and congressional campaigns this year.

The measure instead has given them nothing but trouble, first when a sizable segment of House Democrats balked on grounds that it would increase the budget deficit and later when the bill passed by narrow majorities in both the House and Senate, with many Democrats voting against it.

Meanwhile, House leaders were forced to postpone once again a vote on a Democratic-sponsored bill that would allow Congress to use savings from defense cuts to increase domestic spending--a move now prohibited by the 1990 budget act.

The postponement, presumably until next week, marked the fourth time this year that the vote has been put off because of lukewarm support from rank-and-file Democrats. Bush, who also has vowed to veto that measure, reiterated his warning Wednesday.

The Senate is slated to vote on a similar bill today.

The dispute stems from a provision of the 1990 Budget Enforcement Act that prohibits Congress from using savings from defense or foreign aid cuts to finance increased domestic spending.

At the time, Democrats agreed to a compromise that pledged to keep these budgetary “fire walls” in place until fiscal 1994, which begins a year from October, when the budget agreement is scheduled to expire.

But congressional leaders want to eliminate them now so they can make fuller use of the so-called “peace dividend.” Bush contends that eliminating current budget restraints would invite a run on the Treasury.

The tax bill would have cut taxes for middle-class Americans and offset the resulting drain on the budget by increasing taxes on the rich. It also would have cut taxes on capital gains--profits from the sale of stocks or other assets.

Although Bush agreed with some parts of the bill, he opposed provisions that would have raised taxes on wealthy Americans and vetoed the legislation because of them. The President had proposed his own tax-cut program that would not have increased any taxes.