House OKs $1.74-Trillion Budget

Majority Republicans whisked a final $1.74-trillion budget for fiscal 2000 through the House on Wednesday, paving the way for yearlong combat with President Clinton over tax cuts and spending.

The near party-line vote was 220-208. Senate approval was expected today, which Republicans hoped would help them spotlight their tax-cut drive even as Americans contend with today’s deadline for filing income taxes.

The plan signals the issues the GOP wants to highlight in this year’s run-up to the 2000 elections: a 10-year tax cut totaling at least $778 billion; using Social Security’s enormous surpluses to reduce the national debt and extra money for defense and schools.

“A new agenda for the new millennium,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John R. Kasich (R-Ohio), a presidential hopeful. He added, “We ought to march into the next century, the next millennium with our heads held high.”

Democrats said the measure covered tax cuts with expected federal surpluses that should instead be saved to prepare Medicare for the baby boomers’ retirements and to beef up other social programs.

Details aside, they said it would do little more than let Republicans claim they were finishing the budget on time, which Congress has achieved only once since making April 15 the legal deadline in 1987.

“This looks like we’re making the trains run on time, but in truth, down the tracks a train wreck awaits,” said Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, ranking Budget Committee Democrat, referring to upcoming battles with Clinton.

The measure, which does not require the president’s signature, sets overall totals for detailed tax and spending bills that lawmakers will produce this year.

A prolonged duel with Clinton over those bills seems all but certain. For one, Clinton wants far smaller tax cuts. In addition, Republicans say they will pay for their defense and domestic spending increases by cutting other programs, which Democrats and even some Republicans say is unrealistic.

Even so, completion of the budget by today in itself would mark a political victory of sorts for Republicans. GOP leaders want to cast themselves as performing their work on time, especially given that last year an internal GOP dispute over tax cuts ended in Congress’ failure to approve a budget for the first time since the current budget process started in 1975.