http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20791-2004Mar1.htmlConfronted with ever-widening deficit forecasts, some key congressional Republicans worried about the long-term budgetary effects of President Bush's tax cuts are preparing legislation to scale back the cuts by the end of the decade.
Don Nickles (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said he will try this year to pass legislation to cut -- but not eliminate -- the tax on inherited estates. The House and Senate budget committees will begin drafting tax and spending blueprints this week that decline to extend Bush's tax cuts beyond 2011, as the president has requested. And former Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) is preparing amendments to the budget plan to demand that tax cut extensions be offset by spending cuts or other tax hikes.
"Everything is on the table, ranging from changes in how we do business around here to the tax cuts themselves, particularly as it regards higher-income Americans," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Although not endorsed by the Senate or House Republican leadership, the discussions mark a growing shift in GOP and conservative attitudes about taxes and spending as Congress begins to grapple with projections of record deficits. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office told Congress last Friday that Bush's 2005 budget proposal would generate $2.75 trillion of additional federal debt over the next decade, while failing to cut the deficit in half by 2009, as the president has promised.
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