Senate Slashes Tax Cut

[jodarby]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Driven by concerns about the cost of war with Iraq, the Republican-led U.S. Senate on Tuesday unexpectedly reversed course and voted to slash President Bush's proposed $726 billion tax cut plan to around $350 billion.

The Senate voted 51-48 to add the change to a $2.2 trillion 2004 federal budget it is scheduled to complete by Wednesday.

It had previously voted 62-38 on Friday against a very similar effort by a group of Republican and Democratic moderates concerned about spiraling U.S. budget deficits.

Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, a lead sponsor of the effort, said "concern about the cost and the uncertainty" of the intensifying conflict with Iraq had convinced wavering senators to back further shrinking the size of the tax cut.

The Senate had already voted on Friday to trim $100 billion from Bush's tax cut to help pay for the war.

 

[jodarby]

Sounds like even Republicans are getting scared of the mounting costs of the recession, war and how the tax cuts might leave an even large deficit.

Are people angry that the Senate slashed the tax cut?

 

[Bob_Bytchin]

I'm not upset about the slashes in the tax cut.

Cutting military pay certainly wasn't going to be happening, so there wasn't much alternative was there?