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12/20/2001
WASHINGTON – Urged on by President Bush, the Republican-controlled House
passed recession relief legislation early today blending additional
jobless benefits for the unemployed with personal and business tax cuts.
Democrats denounced the bill as a political stunt with no chance of
becoming law.
The pre-dawn vote was 224-193, largely along party lines.
"The only thing I can figure is they don't want a stimulus package,"
Speaker Dennis Hastert said of minority Democrats. "It's very
frustrating."
"Thank God for the United States Senate" – where the bill may swiftly
die – countered California Rep. Brad Sherman, part of a chorus of
Democrats who denounced the bill as too generous to business and too
costly for the nation.
The bill, with a three-year price tag of $218 billion, approves 13
additional weeks of unemployment benefits for those laid off since the
March onset of the recession, money for health insurance subsidies for
the unemployed and rebates of up to $600 for lower-wage earners who did
not qualify for this summer's checks.
The day began with President Bush proclaiming a bipartisan deal in a
meeting with Republicans and three Democratic senators – John Breaux of
Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Zell Miller of Georgia.
"I am proud to report that members of both political parties and both
bodies of Congress have come to an agreement as to how to stimulate our
economy and how to take care of people in need, people who have lost
their job," Mr. Bush said. He added later, "This bill can pass both
bodies."
Mr. Bush, who was at the Capitol for meetings with Republican leaders,
decided at the last minute to drop by a meeting of House Democrats.
His statement of success was rejected by congressional Democrats, who
said that no bipartisan agreement had been reached – with Congress set
to recess at the end of the week.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the House GOP-backed
plan, a $150 billion mixture of tax breaks and unemployment assistance,
could not make it through the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to break
procedural roadblocks.
"Any deal is going to require 60 votes," Mr. Daschle said. "And I don't
know of a deal that has 60 votes."
He said the Republican package lacks adequate provisions to help
laid-off workers maintain their health insurance. Pointing to Congress'
assistance for the airlines and billions of dollars in aid for New York
since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Mr. Daschle and other Democrats
said lawmakers still had done nothing to help workers who had lost their
jobs.
"We regret very much that our Republican colleagues, at least so far,
have refused to come to the table to negotiate seriously on health and
unemployment benefits," Mr. Daschle said. "We have come more than
halfway in meeting our Republican colleagues on an array of tax
questions that they have said were important to them."
A pressing need
"People's lives are being damaged," he said. "They need health
insurance, they need unemployment help, and they need it now. And we
will stay here and work as hard as we possibly can to get this done for
all the right reasons."
Republicans said they had compromised already.
They said they had agreed to more generous help for the unemployed –
including significant health insurance assistance – and moved away from
a previous House-passed stimulus package that had been criticized as
heavy on corporate tax breaks.
"I don't know what more we can do," said Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla.,
chairman of the House Republican Conference. "I would hope the [Senate]
majority leader would put people before politics, come to the table, and
talk."
Republicans said Mr. Daschle and other Democrats were simply being
obstructionist in a political gamble that a slumping economy might
damage Mr. Bush and hurt Republicans in next year's congressional
elections.
"We've come to the point where you need to take care of American workers
who lost their jobs, American workers who don't have health care," said
Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "Either we get it done or we don't get it
done. The game playing and the finger pointing – we've had enough of it."
Responding to crises
The most recent House GOP-backed package includes corporate tax relief
and increased write-offs for capital investments by businesses. It would
extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks for some laid-off workers. And
it would provide rebate checks of up to $300 for individuals, $500 for
heads of households, and $600 for married couples who did not receive a
rebate check this summer or got less than the full amount.
The plan would cut the 27 percent income tax rate to 25 percent next
year rather than over several years, a move the White House says would
provide $15.8 billion in tax relief next year for 33 million taxpayers.
The current 27 percent tax bracket begins at $27,950 in taxable income
for individuals, $46,700 for married couples.
Democrats generally have opposed accelerating the income tax cuts in Mr.
Bush's 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax relief package. Mr. Daschle has
offered an immediate reduction to 26 percent, but Republicans said that
was not enough.
Republicans added $4.6 billion to the package Wednesday for states to
spend on health care costs.
Their package would grant unemployed workers a tax credit that would pay
for up to 60 percent of their monthly health insurance premiums.
Democrats want to pay 75 percent of the costs of the policies available
for laid-off workers who had employer-provided health coverage, and they
want provisions for part-time workers who were laid off.
Mr. Breaux said he would support the House package because "you can't
take blame to the grocery store and buy bread and milk."
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, a chief Republican negotiator, said the
package deserved a vote in the Senate and called the criticism of it
"intellectually dishonest."
"This is good social policy," Mr. Grassley said. "It's good for the
stimulus. Most important, it responds to a lot of the need of dislocated
workers."
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., a House negotiator, disagreed. "Just saying
that you are doing something doesn't mean that you are," he said.
Even if it were to come up for a vote, one Senate Republican, Lincoln
Chafee of Rhode Island, has said he opposes the measure. Sen. Frank
Murkowski, R-Alaska, is away on a trip and unavailable to vote, and Sen.
Jesse Helms, R-N.C., is ill.
Mr. Daschle said he had no plans to bring the bill to the Senate floor
on Thursday, as Republicans have demanded.
"We ... believe that a bad deal is worse than no deal at all," he said.
"We'll keep working for a good deal."
The Associated Press contributed information to this report.