Clinton Hits Road to Fight GOP Tax Cuts

President Clinton took his campaign against Republican tax cuts on the road Tuesday, only one day after a cordial meeting with GOP leaders.

In a spirited speech to the Communications Workers of America at their annual convention here, the president urged Americans to trust his stewardship of the economy--tacitly alluding to his lost credibility over the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal. “All I can offer is the [economic] record of the last 6 1/2 years,” he said.

Clinton and congressional Republicans generally agree that the $1.9-trillion portion of the budget surplus generated by Social Security should be used to reduce the national debt.

But Republicans want to use much of the remaining $1 trillion for tax cuts, while Clinton and congressional Democrats prefer to use that money to reform Medicare, enact a far smaller tax cut of $250 billion and increase spending for defense and other domestic programs.

The House Ways and Means Committee began work Tuesday on its version of the Republican tax-cut bill, with plans to send it to the floor as early as next week.

The House package, details of which were unveiled Tuesday by panel Chairman Bill Archer (R-Texas), would provide a 10% across-the-board tax cut for all Americans, reduce the “marriage penalty” that couples incur when they file joint returns and repeal the estate tax.

It also contains a spate of longtime GOP favorites: reducing the tax rate on capital gains--profits from the sale of stocks or other assets--to 15%, from the current 20%, and phasing out the “alternative minimum tax” now imposed on wealthier taxpayers and on corporations.

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Chen reported from Miami and Pine from Washington.