More on Tax Cuts

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 16, 2001 | by James P. Lucier, | John Berlau

Senate Republican leadership sources tell news alert! that the Senate expects to take up the tax-cut bill in the second half of May -- long before Washington pundits thought it possible. Pointing to similar skepticism that was expressed before the House version sailed through that body with united Republican support and a handful of significant Democrats, Senate insiders are confident they will have similar success despite the highly publicized complaints of the so-called "Rinos," or "Republicans in name only."

True-blue, trunk-waving party pachyderms already are putting not-so-subtle pressure on the Rinos by stirring up pro-family and fiscal groups in the Rinos' home states. After President Bush's visit to South Dakota softened up Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, the White House scheduled a presidential trip to Maine, home of two prominent Republican tax-cut doubters, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan M. Collins.

Such presidential forays create a news blitz in the backyard of reluctant senators when local print media and TV reporters suddenly get a chance to attend presidential news conferences. "These trips are exercises in consciousness-raising," a White House planner says. "The more the voters think that tax cuts are actually possible, the more they like them."