Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504060090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The vote was 246-188 to send the measure to the Senate, where it is likely to undergo extensive revision at the hand of deficit-conscious lawmakers of both parties.
Voting in favor were 219 Republicans and 27 Democrats. Opposed were 176 Democrats, 11 Republicans and one independent.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, voted for the measure, while Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, opposed it.
Moments before the final vote, House Speaker Newt Gingrich sealed the case for passage, saying every lawmaker should ask: ``In your constituents' lives, won't a little less money for government and a little more money for those families be a good thing, and isn't that what this Congress was elected to do?''
President Clinton, who favors a smaller cut, argued the other side for the Democrats, saying the GOP's $189billion measure marked a return to ``trickle-down economics.'' Republicans want to cut Head Start and education ``to pay for a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. ... That is wrong.''
As a prelude to final passage, lawmakers rejected a smaller alternative crafted by Democrats to offer tax breaks for education and expanded benefits for individual retirement accounts. ``Let's do something for middle-income families for a change,'' said Rep. David Bonior, D-Michigan.
Replying for the Republicans, Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said the more robust GOP bill would offer benefits for a wide array of groups - families, investors, savers, and the parents seeking to adopt a child. ``Starting today, relief is on the way,'' he said. The Democratic proposal fell, 313-119.
The outcome seemed preordained after Republicans prevailed on a midafternoon procedural roll call, 228-204, that demonstrated their command of floor proceedings
``Under the Democrats, tax increases were the answer to every question,'' said Rep. Bill Archer, the Texas Republican who heads the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. ``When this bill is passed, the tax-raising legacy of President Clinton and his party will officially be over.''
Passage of the tax-cut bill sent the legislation to the Senate, where - along with bills on welfare, crime, changes in the civil justice system and many other House-passed components of the ``Contract With America'' - it faces extensive alterations.
Clinton's alternative tax-cut proposal wasn't scheduled for a vote in the House. Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., backed an alternative seeking $31.6 billion in cuts over five years - one-sixth the size of the Republican measure - and consisting of breaks to help students and expand benefits for Individual Retirement Accounts.
The bill would grant the $500-per-child tax credit to families earning up to $200,000. The bill also includes a reduction in the capital-gains tax and other measures favored by businesses. Individual retirement accounts would be expanded and senior citizens and parents adopting children would receive tax breaks.
by CNB