Word: byrds
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Although every Administration since (and including) that of F.D.R. has had its differences with Virginia's Democratic Senator Harry Byrd, each has discovered that Byrd is no blind obstructionist and that his word is as solid as his beloved Blue Ridge back home. If Lyndon Johnson ever had any doubts about that, Byrd dispelled them last week by releasing the Administration's tax bill from his Senate Finance Committee as promised, even though he personally remains dead set against...
...expected, Byrd cast one of five votes-against committee approval of the bill. But, impressed by Johnson's budget-cutting efforts, he speeded committee action, let a bill generally similar to one previously approved by the House go to the Senate floor...
Only frantic, eleventh-hour activity by the President-and the cooperation of Chairman Byrd-prevented the bill from emerging in a form that would have endangered its prospects of quick Senate approval. Committee Republicans were angered when Louisiana Democrat Russell Long rammed through an amendment that cut some $30 million off a proposed $80 million increase in taxes on oil companies. They retaliated by passing amendments to repeal some $445 million in excise taxes on luggage, jewelry, cosmetics and furs...
Sweeping Reversal. Johnson, worried that the unexpected loss of all of these minor taxes would invite countless other Senators to propose their own pet repeal ideas in Senate debate and unbalance the whole package, expressed his "deep concern" to Byrd and other committee members. With one sweeping motion, the committee then reversed its action on all of the excise taxes, thus restoring them. The vote was 9 to 8, with Byrd backing Johnson. Also lost was a proposed repeal of the 10% theater admissions tax. But the $50 million hike in oil-firm taxes survived. The house has voted...
...that reason, President Johnson last week placed tax-cut legislation ahead of civil rights in the order of congressional business. And Virginia Democrat Harry Byrd's Senate Finance Committee stepped up its work on the tax bill. Among other things, it approved the two-step corporate income tax cut from 52% to 48% and dumped an Administration-sponsored, House-approved provision forbidding the deduction of state and local gas taxes, automobile-and driver-license fees from federal returns. Estimated annual revenue loss: $330 million. In his State of the Union message, President Johnson called for tax-cut passage...