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The New
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September 8, 2000, Friday, Late Edition -
Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 22; Column
1; National Desk
LENGTH: 832 words
HEADLINE: Veto of Estate-Tax Repeal
Survives Vote in the House
BYLINE: By RICHARD W.
STEVENSON
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Sept. 7
BODY:
Supporters of a bill to repeal the federal
tax on large estates failed today to overturn President Clinton's veto of the
measure, killing the issue for the year in legislative terms but leaving it very
much alive politically.
Republicans said they were eager to take the
debate to the campaign trail, where they said a repeal would attract support
from small-business owners, farmers, entrepreneurs and other voters who object
to having part of their wealth taxed when they pass it to their heirs.
Democrats, the majority of whom lined up with Mr. Clinton in opposition
to the bill, said they would continue to make their case that while the estate
tax should be reduced for family-owned farms and businesses, the measure that
failed today would eat up too much of the projected budget surplus and
disproportionately reward a tiny percentage of the richest families.
The
bill passed the House and the Senate earlier this year, with the support of
nearly all Republicans and some Democrats. Mr. Clinton vetoed it last week.
Overriding the veto would have required a two-thirds vote in both
chambers, and in the House today supporters of the bill fell well short.
The vote was 274 votes in favor of overturning the veto and 157 in favor
of sustaining it. It would have taken 290 votes to overturn the veto if all 435
House members had voted, or 288 of the 431 votes cast today.
When the
House passed the bill in June by a vote of 279 to 136, 65 Democrats voted in
favor. Today, despite pressure from party leaders and phone calls to some of
those 65 from Mr. Clinton, 53 Democrats still bucked their party to support an
override.
In a statement after the vote, Mr. Clinton commended those
representatives who had voted to uphold the veto and kept up his attack on the
bill and the overall Republican effort to push through a series of tax cuts.
"This is a misguided bill that provides a huge tax cut to the most
well-off Americans at the expense of working families," Mr. Clinton said. "It is
a key ingredient of a Republican tax plan that would leave nothing for Social
Security, Medicare, education or a voluntary, affordable prescription drug
benefit."
Next week the Republican leadership in Congress is expected to
try to override the president's veto of its other main tax bill this year, a tax
cut for married couples. Republicans acknowledged that they would probably fail,
but said that again highlighting Mr. Clinton's opposition to tax cuts would help
them retain control of the House and help put Gov. George W. Bush of Texas in
the White House.
Vice President Al Gore opposed the estate tax bill
passed by Congress, but has supported a smaller plan to reduce the tax on
family-owned farms and businesses. Mr. Bush, who included repeal of the estate
tax in his $1.3 trillion tax cut proposal, said in a statement today that if he
is elected president, "there will be no veto to override" because he will "sign
the abolition of the death tax into law."
The legislation would have
phased out the federal estate and gift tax over the next 10 years, with much of
the tax disappearing only at the end of that period.
Under current law,
the tax is levied only on estates valued at $675,000 or more, an amount already
scheduled to rise to $1 million by 2006. Family-owned businesses and farms have
a special exemption up to $1.3 million. Above those levels, estates are subject
to a graduated tax with a top rate of 55 percent.
Because of the
exemptions, the tax actually effects relatively few estates -- fewer than 48,000
this year. But it concerns groups with considerable political leverage,
including the small-business and farm lobbies, as well as the wealthy.
Democrats renewed their call today for a compromise measure they offered
earlier. The Democratic alternative would immediately raise the exemption for
family-owned farms and businesses to $2 million per person, or $4 million per
couple.
But Republicans again rebuffed the Democratic plan, saying that
it was built around tax rules that are complicated and narrowly drawn, and that
it would benefit only a tiny percentage of people.
"There is only one
way to rid the code of this immoral, unfair and economically unsound tax, and
that's to eliminate it," said Representative Jennifer Dunn, Republican of
Washington.
Democrats said that Congress should be concentrating on
issues that are of concern to all voters, not just to the 2 percent who have to
worry about estate taxes.
Representative Richard A. Gephardt of
Missouri, the House Democratic leader, said his constituents never mentioned the
estate tax when talking to him about their concerns. Instead, he said, they
press him for action on adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, and on
education, shoring up Social Security and keeping guns out of schools.
"People do not want to spend the majority of this surplus on tax cuts,
and they sure don't want to spend it on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans,"
Mr. Gephardt said.
http://www.nytimes.com
GRAPHIC: Photo: Dick Armey, the House majority leader,
and Representative J. C. Watts Jr., Republican of Oklahoma, before yesterday's
vote on the estate tax. (Susana Raab for The New York Times)
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