Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
July 16, 2000, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A10
LENGTH: 424 words
HEADLINE:
Clinton Vows to Veto Estate Tax Repeal; President Calls Plan
'Irresponsible'; Republicans Seek Other Cuts
DATELINE:
THURMONT, Md., July 15
BODY:
President
Clinton pledged today to veto an "irresponsible" repeal of the estate tax passed
by a Republican Congress he said was bent on reckless spending.
"In
recent weeks, the Republicans in Congress have done an about-face on our
strategy of fiscal discipline," Clinton said in his weekly radio address.
"Having already passed more than half a trillion dollars in reckless tax cuts,
this week they passed a fiscally irresponsible plan to repeal the entire estate
tax.
"Its costs would explode to $ 750 billion after 10 years, and every
year fully half its benefits would go to just 3,000 families," Clinton said in
an address aired from Camp David, the presidential retreat in western Maryland
where he is hosting a Middle East peace summit.
But Republicans said
they were ready to approve even more tax-break legislation.
In the
Republican radio address, Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said the burgeoning federal
budget surplus makes it the perfect time for Congress to fix the marriage tax
glitch and enact other tax cuts.
"It's just plain wrong for the
government to punish people for getting married," Toomey said. "Washington is
swimming in surplus tax dollars. Let's give some of it back to working Americans
by ending unfair taxes."
The Senate opened debate Friday on a 10-year, $
248 billion measure that would essentially cut taxes for all married couples by
adjusting their tax brackets and increasing their standard deduction to twice
that of single taxpayers.
Although Clinton had left no doubt that he
would veto the bill repealing estate taxes, he has conditionally pledged to sign
the marriage tax measure. His price: congressional approval of separate
legislation creating an acceptable Medicare prescription drug benefit.
Clinton said he is convinced the deal he is offering has strong merits.
"There's a growing consensus, in the Senate and all across America, that
we need a real Medicare prescription drug benefit--not a flawed private
insurance program that even the insurance companies admit won't work," he said.
"I also think we can agree to protect our hard-fought fiscal discipline
by pledging to use Medicare surpluses only for debt reduction," he said.
On Friday, senators voted 59 to 39 to pass the "death tax" elimination
bill, ignoring Democratic arguments that it was a tax cut for the richest
Americans. Sponsors portrayed the measure as a matter of basic fairness and a
remedy for a tax that punishes success, and nine Democrats joined most of the
Republicans in voting for it.
LOAD-DATE: July
16, 2000 
