Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993 TAG: 9303250190
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
SOCIAL SECURITY RISE SURVIVES
Democrats rebuffed the Republicans' best shot at derailing President Clinton's economic plan Wednesday as the Senate voted to preserve his proposed tax increase on higher-income Social Security recipients.By rejecting the GOP effort to kill the tax increase on a 52-47 vote, the Senate put a blueprint of Clinton's deficit-reduction plan on a clear path to passage.
Virginia's Democratic senator, Charles Robb, voted with the majority to leave the tax increase in the overall economic measure, while Republican John Warner voted to remove it.
Majority Democrats relished the taste of imminent victory.
"We tried your plan for 12 years and it didn't work," taunted Sen. Donald Riegle Jr., D-Mich. "And the American people reached that judgment last November, and they sent that crowd out and they sent in a new president who came in with an economic plan for this country."
The Senate is likely to approve the outline of tax boosts on the rich, defense cuts and long-range spending increases today. The House approved a similar measure last week, and negotiators from the two chambers plan to begin crafting a compromise measure immediately. The actual tax and spending changes will be in future legislation.
After the Social Security vote, Democrats flexed their muscle again as the Senate voted 55-44 to kill an attempt by Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, to eliminate new taxes and spending boosts.
The Senate then killed an alternative budget-cutting plan offered by Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. The measure, defeated 57-42, would have replaced Clinton's tax and spending increases with deep reductions in social programs.
But the key vote was on the Social Security amendment, aimed squarely at the political soft spot of Clinton's recovery plan. Party leaders couched the vote as a loyalty test for Democrats.
"This is a torpedo aimed at President Clinton," said Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine. "This is an effort to slow down the momentum that's gathering for the president in the country."
As the outcome became obvious, Republicans offered critiques of the president's package that they hoped would sway the public. Gramm compared its higher taxes and new federal initiatives to socialism.
"If socialism carries the day, this program will work," Gramm said. "But it has never carried the day. It has been rejected everywhere in the world except Cuba, in North Korea and China, and in Washington, D.C."
Prospects for quick approval of Clinton's accompanying $16.3 billion jobs package seemed a bit dimmer, however.
Facing solid GOP opposition and reluctance from conservative Democrats, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., told reporters that it will be "a very, very difficult measure to put through." The Senate planned to begin debating the measure today.
The outlines of Clinton's economic plan were included in a $1.5 trillion spending plan for fiscal 1994, which begins Oct. 1.
It calls for higher taxes on the rich and on energy use, plus enough slashes in defense and benefit programs to peel $502 billion off projected budget deficits over the next five years.
It would also funnel more money at environmental projects, computer programs and other projects Clinton says will nurture economic growth.
During the Social Security vote, Democrats had Vice President Al Gore sitting in the Senate president's chair in case his tie-breaking vote was needed. But party members essentially held fast for their new president.