Dick Gephardt in CNN political race coverage

On Tax Reform: Crazy to cut taxes without creating a budget first

Democrats were angered that the GOP leadership have pushed to get the tax cut bill through the House so rapidly, saying it makes little sense to draft a tax cut before creating a fiscal year 2002 budget resolution. “This is happening without a budget, without hearings, without input from anybody,” Dick Gephardt said, complaining that the debate structure laid out by the majority Republicans did no justice to a bill with a size & scope such as this one. “This is the biggest tax bill we have ever taken up in this Congress,“ he said. ”They’ve scheduled two hours debate on a $1 trillion tax cut. That’s crazy.“

A Democratic alternative that would have slashed taxes by some $600 billion over 10 years included a doubling of the standard deduction for married couples -- a facet not included in the Republican bill. The Republicans have said they wish to get the tax rate changes passed first, and they plan to return later to issues such as marriage penalty relief and elimination of the estate tax.

Source: CNN.com coverage Mar 8, 2001

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