Daschle Vows To Fight Permanent Tax Cut Plans

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

24 May 2002

The debate over President Bush's tax cut program in the US continued to rumble along this week, following Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's promise to halt Republican efforts to make the $1.3 trillion cuts permanent.

Although prevented from enacting permanent estate tax and other cuts by the Democratic leadership in the Senate initially, the White House has stated that making the tax cuts a permanent feature of the US tax code is now a high priority, and the House of Representatives passed a bill designed to do exactly that in April.

However, arguing that such a move would cost an additional $400 billion in lost revenues over the next ten years, the Senate Majority Leader vowed to fight plans to prevent the estate tax repeal from sunsetting ten years after introduction.

'We're going to have that fight and I'm very hopeful that we could win it,' CBS Marketwatch quoted Senator Daschle as predicting on Wednesday.

Unsurprisingly, his actions have been slammed by Republicans, who have accused the Senate Majority Leader of being an 'obstructionist'. Urging the Senate to pass measures designed to provide tax relief for married couples, Republican Leadership Council President, Dick Zimmer argued that:

'As the House continues to pursue President Bush's agenda of reducing the tax burden on working Americans with help from congressional Democrats, Senator Daschle seems intent on ensuring that federal tax rates remain as high as posible.'

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