Senate leaders on Tuesday vowed to push for a bipartisan economic stimulus plan, rejecting a Republican-backed measure in the House of Representatives that had been criticized by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. 
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said the $100 billion plan approved by the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee on Friday in a party-line vote was too costly and would not do much to provide an immediate stimulus to the economy. 
"I think we've got to go back to the drawing board," the South Dakota Democrat said. "I'm hopeful that we can do that here in the Senate." 
The Republican-controlled House later this week is expected to take up the package that aims to inject $100 billion into the economy over the next year through business tax breaks and a payroll tax rebate for low-wage workers who did not benefit from the income tax rebates paid to taxpayers in the past few months. 
The White House on Tuesday urged the House to pass that bill despite concerns that it is too generous and promised to work with Senate Democrats and Republicans to make the final product more bipartisan. 
"The president does support that package," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said of the House bill. But he made clear the White House would press congressional negotiators to reduce its size to closer to the $75 billion set by the president, as well as to address other differences. 
"The president understands it's the beginning of a process, and he's going to want to continue to work closely with Democrats and Republicans to successfully complete the process," he said. 
Fleischer struck a more conciliatory tone than O'Neill who said on Monday the Ways and Means party-line vote last week was "show business" and that it contained more than what the president wanted. 
Lawmakers believe the economy needs a boost to help it recover from the shock of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, that killed nearly 5,400 people. 
The House package includes tax breaks for businesses that will allow them to carry losses back five years to reduce previous tax payments and write off purchases of computers and other equipment faster. It also repeals the corporate alternative minimum tax and simplifies rules on gains from the sale of stocks and other assets, a change that will reduce taxes on some capital gains. 
A key provision of the bill is a rebate for wage-earners who did not earn enough money to benefit from the income tax rebates issued in the last few months as part of the $1.35 trillion 10-year tax cut signed by Bush earlier this year. The bill will also accelerate some income tax rate cuts that were part of the earlier tax bill. 
The White House and Senate tax-writers have said they do not want a stimulus plan that will have lasting effects on budget balances and push long-term interest rates higher. Borrowing by the federal government can have an impact on long-term interest rates such as mortgage rates. 
The House bill will reduce federal revenues by $100 billion in the current fiscal year which began on Oct. 1. Revenues would be cut by $63 billion in fiscal 2003 and $49 billion in 2004. 
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, said the House package would give enough of an immediate jolt to the economy since 40 percent of the package will go into effect after the first year. 
He also said 40 percent of the benefit will go to the top 1 percent of wealthiest Americans. 
"I think the first (administration) response was the most accurate when Secretary O'Neill called it 'show business,"' Conrad said. "That package is going nowhere." 
Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi also said he thought the Senate would have to make changes. 
"It is going to have to be fair and have things that both Republicans and Democrats feel strongly about," Lott told reporters. "We are going to have to start making some decisions. We may have to do it in some sort of high level discussion-like venue." 
Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said he was worried partisan action in the House would hurt the Senate bipartisan effort. 
"The fact that it (the House package) became a partisan document makes it more difficult for us to reach a bipartisan agreement in the Senate," Grassley said. "I am hoping for a bipartisan agreement and hoping to have it within the confines of the president's numbers."