Republicans sought support Monday from moderate Senate Democrats in a last-gasp attempt at crafting a bipartisan economic stimulus bill. President Bush worked the telephones while GOP leaders considered putting a new package to a House vote.
With Congress itching to leave town for the year, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., was drafting legislation likely to combine GOP tax cuts for individuals and businesses with the Democrats' 13-week extension of unemployment benefits and a tax credit to help jobless people buy health insurance.
That bill, which could reach the House floor by midweek, might draw enough backing from the Senate's Democratic centrists to increase the pressure on Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to schedule a vote. An earlier $100 million House GOP package consisting mostly of tax cuts was never put to a vote in the Senate and a Democratic bill heavier on government spending was blocked by Republicans.
After meeting Monday with Thomas, Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana, a leader of the Democratic moderates, said he would discuss the House proposal with other centrists to determine if enough votes exist to overcome a 60-vote procedural hurdle and pass the bill. There are 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one independent who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate.
House GOP leaders, Breaux said, don't want "to do something they don't think can pass the Senate. I would just hope there has to be a way we can reach an agreement."
Putting a second economic stimulus bill on the House floor would also give Republicans a chance to vote for more generous unemployment benefits than those in the measure passed in October. Democrats have repeatedly criticized that bill as a tax giveaway to wealthy individuals and multinational corporations and said the GOP was ignoring the plight of the unemployed.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush has talked extensively in recent days to Senate moderates, including Breaux, in hopes of patching together sufficient support for Congress to pass a compromise bill.
The Bush administration, which has been pushing for an economic stimulus package since shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, continued to lay blame for the stalemate at the doorstep of the Democrat-led Senate.
"Obviously, the Senate is on a slow path, a slow track to stimulating the economy, and the president would like to help the Senate," Fleischer said.
Thomas said the main obstacle was Democratic insistence that increased health insurance assistance be based on existing COBRA coverage available to some, but not all, laid-off workers. Republicans want a tax credit that would be available upfront to the unemployed and could be used to help pay for a wider range of health plans.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, however, said the GOP proposal would be "chaotic" and would be difficult to put in place in time to help unemployed people. Baucus said Democrats had come a long way in supporting GOP income tax cuts.
"It gives Democrats heartburn, ulcers. And they are willing to take the ulcers and the heartburn if they get the benefits," said Baucus, D-Mont.
Details of a second House bill were still being worked out Monday. Several sources said key parts would resemble a proposal floated by Bush last week that was endorsed by Breaux and other Democratic centrists.
That measure included a new round of rebate checks aimed at lower-income workers and would cut the 27 percent income tax rate to 25 percent in 2002 rather than phasing the reduction in over several years. There are also tax breaks for large and small businesses, including 30 percent immediate depreciation write-offs over the next three years.