Word: trillion
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Next, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and the Democratic loyalists who fought Bush walked into the studio. This was a victory for Democrats, Daschle claimed. "We've made great progress." Bush wanted a $1.6 trillion tax cut but the Senate voted to give him only a $1.18 trillion...
...three sides claim victory? If you have a winner, don't you also have to have a loser? And for that matter, what tax cut number did the Senate actually approve? Was it $1.3 trillion, $1.27 trillion, or $1.18 trillion...
...answer to the last question first. All three sides are using creative rounding to come up with a number that makes each of them look good. Bush wanted to cut taxes by $1.6 trillion over a 10-year period from 2002 to 2011. The Senate actually passed a $1.188 trillion tax cut for that 10-year period. But the Senate also approved an $85 billion rebate for this year to stimulate the ailing economy. To make it appear that the chamber came closer to Bush's number than what the Democrats wanted, Lott and Cheney add the $85 billion...
...Bush took a hard line up to the final vote, insisting that he had to have his $1.6 trillion cut and that there was no room to compromise. But even most Senate Republicans believed privately that his number was unrealistically high. His tax cut ended up being cut by as much as 26 percent, if you use Daschle's calculation - hardly a resounding victory...
...Breaux's moderates didn't really broker a compromise. Lott simply stopped the voting on the tax cut when the number reached $1.273 trillion, fearing it would be whittled away even more if Senate Democratic continued offering amendments. The House has approved all of Bush's $1.6 trillion cut. When the two chambers go into conference to hammer out a final compromise, Lott intends to move the final number closer to $1.6 trillion and leave Breaux's compromise in the dust...