Even parliamentary insiders would have a hard time explaining the maneuvers that led to a congressional budget resolution for fiscal 2004 that aims to cut taxes, depending on how you read between the lines, by either $550 billion or $350 billion over the next decade.
Both numbers are lower than the absurdly large $726 billion in tax cuts originally proposed by President Bush. And both go beyond the sort of temporary, targeted tax cuts that could be justified to jump-start a still-sluggish economy.
But while the twists and turns that produced the 2004 budget resolution provided some comfort to both moderate and extreme tax cutters in Congress, the momentum seems to be with those on Capitol Hill -- Republicans included -- who recognize that the orgy of tax-cutting pressed by the White House is bad policy at a time when the United States is still toting up the cost of the war in Iraq.
Officially, the budget resolution approved by both houses of Congress favors the House position that taxes should be cut to the tune of $550 billion. But there is a big asterisk: Two Republican senators who voted for the resolution, a blueprint that must be filled in later with revenue and appropriations measures, did so only after being assured that the eventual ceiling on tax cuts would be $350 billion.
"At the end of the day," promised Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, "the tax cut side of the growth package will not exceed $350 billion." Armed with that assurance, moderate Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe of Maine and George V. Voinovich of Ohio went along with the budget resolution.
This newspaper long has been skeptical of the Bush administration's enthusiasm for huge tax cuts that disproportionately would benefit the well-to-do. Not only do such tax reductions go beyond what is needed to stimulate the economy; they would make it difficult for the federal government to live up to its current obligations, not to mention adding new programs such as a prescription-drug benefit under Medicare.
It is said that in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. In the current debate on tax cuts, those senators who want to cut taxes by "only" $350 billion are, relatively speaking, fiscally responsible. They also seem to be more in tune with public opinion: In a poll conducted for The Associated Press, six in 10 respondents opposed more tax cuts while the country remained at war and experienced budget deficits.
May such prudence prevail as the bare bones of the budget resolution are fleshed out with tax and appropriations bills.
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