Economic Stimulus Proposals Divide Democrats
By Alan K. Ota, CQ Staff
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid face a split in their party’s ranks over the best medicine for a tired economy: tax cuts or more spending.
Liberal Democrats, committee chairmen and appropriators want to boost spending on traditional Democratic priorities such as infrastructure and heating oil subsidies. Moderate Democrats would prefer to spur consumer spending and job creation with new tax breaks for middle-class families and businesses.
Pelosi and Reid want to offer an economic package to compete with the tax cuts expected to be the centerpiece of President Bush’s fiscal 2009 budget proposal. Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin , D-Ill., said party leaders in both chambers will soon sift proposals by committee chairmen.
Democratic aides said they will look for measures that would avert bad economic news close to the November elections or inoculate Democrats against political fallout.
Although they are miles away from Bush on economic policy, Pelosi and Reid are publicly calling for a bipartisan approach. In a Jan. 11 letter to the president, they proposed a summit meeting before either the White House or congressional Democrats unveil their proposals.
One senior Democratic aide said a bipartisan approach would be preferable because “it’s not a stimulus if it’s not enacted.”
Aides said that if the White House declines to meet, Democratic leaders will likely outline a stimulus plan before Bush’s Jan. 28 State of the Union address.
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