Democrats Lay Siege to Tax Cut Bill

Senate Democrats on Tuesday mounted a last-ditch effort to delay enactment of the broad tax cut legislation that had been hurtling through Congress.

The delay could jeopardize President Bush’s hope that a tax cut close to what he sought would become law in time to speed relief to taxpayers as early as this summer. And the outlook for the bill was further clouded by speculation that Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont would announce today that he was leaving the Republican Party, throwing control of the Senate to the Democrats.

Although it would remain likely the Senate would pass a tax cut bill, a Jeffords defection could give Democratic leaders a much stronger hand in negotiating its final form with the GOP-led House.

The current Senate bill calls for $1.35 trillion in tax cuts over 11 years, and it has drawn support from a handful of Democrats. But the Senate debate that began Monday laid bare the thinnest veneer of bipartisanship that surrounded it. On Tuesday, a determined cadre of Democrats blocked the final vote on the bill for the second day in a row.

They offered a spate of amendments they said served to define the differences between the parties, a move partly aimed at countering complaints from Democratic activists that the party has not effectively voiced its opposition to the GOP’s tax cut plans.

The stalling efforts also reflected the frustration that has been building among Democrats as a tax cut that could shape government’s priorities for years to come kept moving closer to reality.

“You can only take so much sand being kicked in your face,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) acknowledged that, at the least, the Democrats might frustrate his desire to whisk the bill through Congress and deliver it to Bush by Memorial Day.

“It appears now that we are having a filibuster by amendment,” Lott said. But “we’re going to get it done, no matter how long it takes.”

Even before the speculation about Jeffords roiled the Senate, the ability of Democrats to drag out the process provided Lott with another lesson on the limits of his power. A Senate that has been divided 50-50 between the parties leaves the GOP leader at the mercy of all manner of whim--from the fragile health of aged lawmakers to the lone-wolf tendencies of party mavericks.

Republicans clung to some hope of finishing work on the tax bill this week. But a senior House GOP aide acknowledged that, even once the Senate approves the bill, “it will be a heavy lift” to reconcile differences between the two chambers over the legislation and have a vote on the compromise before Congress takes a weeklong recess for the Memorial Day holiday.

The House already has passed a series of bills closely patterned after Bush’s request for a tax cut package totaling $1.6 trillion.

GOP leaders have been meeting informally to begin the process of reconciling their differences. On Tuesday, a top Republican House leader showed some give on one of the biggest differences between the bills.

The House approved the Bush plan to cut income tax rates across the board, which includes reducing the top rate to 33% from 39.6%. The Senate bill, in contrast, would cut the top rate to 36%.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) told reporters Tuesday that under a possible compromise he could accept a top rate closer to the Senate proposal but link it to provisions of the Senate bill that would ease or eliminate current laws that limit the value of deductions and exemptions to upper-income taxpayers.

Action in the Senate has been slowed not only by Democratic amendments but also by the challenge Lott has had keeping his own party in line. On Monday, for example, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Bush rival who perennially strays from the party line, offered an amendment to scale back tax cuts for the wealthy. It was rejected on a 49-49 tie.

A similar version of that amendment was offered Tuesday after Democrats persuaded Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) to switch sides and support it. But Republicans persuaded Jeffords to switch his vote and oppose the amendment, which died on another tie.

Jeffords, in fact, has stuck with the GOP on several crucial votes, despite the prospect that he may give up his Republican affiliation.

Lott’s ability to drive the Senate has also been buffeted by concern about the stamina of Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), who at 98 is in fragile health. On Monday, as the session dragged late into the night, some senators tried to make it possible for Thurmond to go home. But he could not, given the closeness of the Senate’s partisan divide.

It was during the course of Monday’s debate, after a series of amendments to reshape the tax bill were narrowly defeated, that Democrats became energized to make a more aggressive effort to air their criticisms of the tax cut--that it is too skewed to the wealthy and leaves too little for other government priorities such as Medicare, education and debt reduction.

Their amendments included many that would reduce the income tax rate cut for the upper-income taxpayers and use the money for other purposes: a Medicare prescription drug benefit, expanded tax breaks for taxpayers in lower brackets and the like. Republicans complained that the Democrats were offering essentially the same amendment over and over again to simply delay the inevitable.

“This is another attempt to delay final passage of the tax bill,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Democrats said it was just an effort to make clear to voters what is at stake in a bill they know they cannot defeat.

“This is not about delaying,” said Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). “We are concerned about a fair fight on priorities we care most about.”