Democrats Cite Deficit Fears In Opposing Bush's Tax Plan (The New York Times)

By Alison Mitchell, The New York Times
Wednesday, February 28, 2001

Washington, Feb. 27 - The Democratic leaders of Congress signaled their determination today to wage a muscular battle against President Bush's centerpiece $1.6 trillion tax cut, charging that it could imperil the future health of Social Security and Medicare and lead the nation back to an era of deficits.

Vying with Mr. Bush for public opinion, Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri used the televised Democratic response to Mr. Bush's address to a joint session of Congress tonight to raise doubts about whether his numbers were sound and whether he could really deliver all he promised.

At the same time, they tried to present their own party as the centrist steward of fiscal responsibility, showcasing the Democrats' call for a smaller tax cut of less than $1 trillion and more debt reduction as the responsible course for the era of surpluses.

"If what we heard tonight sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Mr. Gephardt said of Mr. Bush's agenda, according to an advance text. He said Mr. Bush's tax cut means "he cannot possibly keep his commitment to leave no child behind." And he charged that Mr. Bush "fails to set aside the resources Social Security and Medicare will need" as baby boomers retire and strain the retirement system.

"President Bush's budget numbers simply don't add up," Mr. Gephardt said. "Ours do. His plan leaves no money for anything except tax cuts. Ours does. Our plan is better. It invests in the greatest needs and highest priorities of our nation."

It was the first time since Mr. Bush's father was in the White House that the Democrats were the ones delivering the opposition response, and party members said they were keenly aware that this was a moment to try to move beyond the controversy over Bill Clinton's pardons and show that they can mount a constructive, effective opposition.

So far only one Democrat, Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, has come out in favor of Mr. Bush's plan, while two Senate Republicans, James M. Jeffords of Vermont and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island have come out against it as too large. Mr. Bush cannot afford to lose many Republican votes with the Senate split 50-50.

In an effort to propel the tax cut forward, Republican leaders now plan to pass one element of their plan - marginal rate reductions - through the House as early as next week to build momentum and a fierce battle is expected for the votes of centrists in both parties.

In a sign of the battle ahead, Senator Trent Lott, the majority leader, showed that the president would be putting pressure on Democrats up for re-election in 2002 from southern states that Mr. Bush won, and suggested that the president would win Democratic converts.

"How is Max Cleland going to vote?" he asked in an interview with the Bloomberg News Service, referring to a Democratic senator from Georgia. "He is up next year. I think he would be under some pressure." He also suggested that Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana would be under similar pressure, saying, "if she doesn't vote for it, she is going to pay a price for it."

Mr. Daschle reacted sharply today, saying, "I'm not going to debate where Senators Landrieu and Cleland stand. They can speak for themselves. I think it's unfortunate that any one of us would speak for another senator. I don't pretend to do that, and I don't know that they appreciate it either."

He said he was "very confident" that some tax cut would pass, but that it would be very different from Mr. Bush's proposal.

Congressional aides said the two Democratic leaders decided to share the limelight to symbolize party unity. And they were careful not to look obstructionist. Mr. Daschle said that on matters where the Democrats agreed with Mr. Bush such as his literacy initiative or proposed increases in military pay "we will work with him and work hard to turn those ideas into law."

But Mr. Daschle also recalled the Reagan tax cut of 1981, which contributed to an era of federal deficits and debt. Both he and Mr. Gephardt ultimately voted for that tax cut. "We were promised that if we gave huge tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans the benefits would trickle down, deficits would disappear and the economy would flourish," Mr. Daschle said. "Congress supported that experiment. It was a huge mistake."

He said, "It took us 18 years, four acts of Congress and a lot of hard work by the American people to get out of that ditch."

"Now America has a choice," Mr. Daschle said. "What shall we do with the blessings of our new prosperity? Our first priority must be to continue paying down the trillions of dollars in federal debt Washington ran up in the 1980's. We can't just pass this debt onto our children - not when we have the ability to pay it off."

Mr. Bush's effort to pass his tax cut will be his first defining battle in Congress and Democrats say they have been heartened by recent public opinion polls that have suggested that Mr. Bush has not made much headway in selling his cut to the public since taking office.

A survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that a modest plurality of Americans, or 43 percent, support Mr. Bush's tax cut although many fewer people favor using the budget surplus for a tax cut than for shoring up Social Security and Medicare. It also showed that a large majority of Americans believe the president's plan will benefit some people more than others.

The two Democratic leaders' views were echoed today by an array of other party members including Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, the Connecticut Democrat who was the defeated vice-presidential contender. In a speech on the Senate floor today, he said that "the American economy appears to have a slight head cold right now. If we take the medicine that President Bush is offering, I'm afraid we'll have a bad case of pneumonia."

He also criticized the "values" implicit in the tax cut, saying that the president "rewards those who are already wealthy and don't need the tax cut he is giving them."
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