Budget frames campaign themes

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Democrats pushed through budget plans this week that rely on letting President Bush's tax cuts die once he leaves office, framing a stark election-year fight over taxes.

The roughly $3 trillion blueprints that passed the House and Senate on Thursday are unlikely to affect what the government does this year, but they are certain to figure prominently in both parties' campaign talking points.

That's why all three presidential candidates, Republican nominee-to-be John McCain of Arizona and Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, returned to Washington to cast votes on the measure, which passed mostly along party lines.

Republicans are accusing Democrats of perpetrating a massive tax increase by failing to extend Bush's tax cuts, which are set to expire in 2010. Democrats hammer the GOP for what they call irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy that they blame for ballooning the deficit, and blast their plans for huge reductions in social programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

McCain voted to extend the full roster of Bush's tax cuts, which he opposed seven years ago as being skewed toward the wealthy. Clinton of New York and Obama of Illinois both voted to extend only some of the cuts while allowing reductions in income tax rates and investments expire. They joined other Democrats in a 52-47 vote against extending $376 billion of them.

Democrats argue that they can afford more spending and still bring the federal budget into the black in four years without raising taxes, by closing tax loopholes and going after tax cheats.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., the Budget Committee chairman, says it "restores the fiscal responsibility that has been shattered by the Bush administration."

"It returns the budget to surplus in 2012 and 2013. It reduces debt and spending as a share of the economy. The Democratic budget cuts taxes," Conrad says in a radio address to be delivered Saturday.

In fact, it will be up to the next Congress and a new president to decide whether to keep Bush's tax cuts alive. Still, Democrats' budget proposals predict surpluses in 2012 — even with new spending increases — based on projections that Bush's tax cuts expire.

Congress' annual budget is always nonbinding, but in this presidential election year it is particularly ineffectual. A standoff with Bush means Democrats may even take a pass on advancing the 12 annual appropriations bills.

"It's bound to tee up arguments for the fall, and in some respects is designed to tee up arguments for the fall," said Brookings Institution analyst Bill Galston, domestic policy adviser during Bill Clinton's first term.

Republicans used the debate to tag Democrats as big spenders. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., even offered an amendment that proposed to add $1.4 trillion to the budget, which he said was the cost of Obama's plans. It failed unanimously, to nobody's surprise.

The budget debate may have taken one prominent issue off the table for the November elections, however. All three presidential contenders voted to put a one-year freeze on earmarks, which lawmakers use to steer federal dollars to their districts.

McCain has long railed against the practice, but he couldn't attract even a majority of Senate Republicans to vote with him Thursday night on a moratorium touted by party conservatives as a way to restore the GOP's credibility with voters.

It failed on a 71-29 vote. Only three Democrats joined Clinton and Obama in backing it.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080314/ap_on_go_co/budget_politics [link]

[Rouger2]

Ding bats can't get rid of their earmarks.