WASHINGTON – President-elect Bush is set this week to fill the three vacancies in his Cabinet and huddle with advisers about how to move his tax plan through Congress.
Bush still must name the secretaries of energy, labor and transportation. Bush is set to make one of those picks today in Austin.
He left his ranch in Crawford, Texas, yesterday and traveled to the state capital in Austin, where he’s working although he has resigned as Texas governor.
This week, he’s hosting a closed-door economic forum in which industry executives, high-tech leaders and advisers will mull over the latest shaky economic figures – and discuss Bush’s proposed $1.3 trillion tax cut, which Bush said is needed to help jump-start the economy.
The prospects for Bush’s tax cut in Congress are unclear. With the new members who will be sworn in tomorrow, Republicans will hold a narrow 10-vote edge in the House, and the Senate will be split 50-50, with Vice President-elect Dick Cheney able to break tie votes.
Bush said he’ll send up his tax cut soon after taking office Jan. 20, but Democrats have already painted it as too big and risky, and Republicans have suggested that the best way to pass it is to break up the bill and vote on the tax cuts piece by piece.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said he plans to take up bills to end the marriage penalty and inheritance taxes – two bills that passed with Democratic support last year, only to be vetoed by President Clinton – before considering Bush’s more ambitious plan to cut all income-tax rates.
Bush has signaled that he’s open to Hastert’s idea, but he’s never backed away from any aspect of his package.
Bush has repeatedly said his first bill sent to Congress will be education reform, although that doesn’t necessarily mean that Congress will take up education first.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has said he plans to pursue campaign-finance reform right off the bat. Bush supports a weaker version of the reform bill than the one McCain is pushing.
And in the Senate, it takes 60 votes to end debate and move toward a vote on any particular bill. That means Senate Democrats have the ability to stick together and block some bills.
Bush’s education proposal calls for mandatory testing in public schools and vouchers for private education in school districts that don’t show improvement. Many Democrats oppose vouchers, saying they siphon money from public schools.
Republicans and Democrats appear to be closer on bills to provide prescription drug coverage for the elderly, but differ on details.