The Senate rebuffed a last-gasp Republican effort to kill the proposed gasoline tax increase Thursday and prepared for expected passage of a giant Democratic deficit-reduction package.
By a mostly party-line 50-48 vote, lawmakers rejected an amendment by Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., that would have shrunk the Democratic measure by removing the new tax on motor fuels.The Democratic bill largely follows President Clinton's formula of tax increases and spending cuts. A vote on final passage was expected Thursday night, and White House officials were predicting victory.
"It's going to be a tough vote, a close vote," White House Budget Director Leon Panetta said on ABC Thursday. "But I think in the end we'll have the votes because the members (of the Senate) understand that there is no other alternative but to put this plan in place."
Asked Thursday morning if the bill would pass, Clinton crossed his fingers and said, "We're working on it."
His spokeswoman, Dee Dee Myers, said the bill did not have enough votes going into Thursday, but "by the end of the day we will have them."
The House approved a similar bill last month. Senate passage would lead to negotiations between the House and Senate over a compromise.
Clinton planned to call senators "as needed" but had not scheduled personal meetings. A series of calls by Clinton and his senior aides sealed last-minute deals to barely pass the House bill.
The Democratic plan is aimed at paring $516 billion from federal deficits by 1998 but depends on a series of future actions to meet that goal and has attracted no support from the Republicans.
The Senate's majority Democrats had flexed their muscle on Wednesday when the chamber voted 55-43 to kill a rival GOP budget-cutting plan that included only spending cuts. Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama was the only Democrat voting for the Republican plan, while Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont was the lone GOP defector.
Republicans said their alternative and its spending limits on Medicare and other programs would have driven budget deficits even lower than the Democratic measure.
They also said the $249 billion in new taxes in the Democratic bill would do little more than hinder the economy and cost jobs.