The Senate approved tax breaks for millions of married couples and self-employed workers in an election-year gambit by Republicans designed to improve the prospects of major tobacco legislation.
The tax cuts were added as an amendment to a tobacco bill that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott had declared near death earlier this week. The voice vote approval Wednesday came after Democrats narrowly failed to kill the amendment."Stayin' alive, stayin' alive," Sen. John McCain, sponsor of the tobacco bill, declared with a grin and both fists in the air as he left the chamber following the vote.
The Arizona Republican's bill would charge tobacco companies at least $516 billion over 25 years, in part by raising taxes by $1.10 a pack. That was a provision that chafed conservatives, who said it would run afoul of the GOP's promise to cut taxes.
A group led by Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas offered an amendment they figured no lawmaker could refuse in an election year. It would offer couples earning less than $50,000 a year a break from the "marriage tax" penalty, a provision in the tax code that forces couples to pay more than they would as singles.
The $46 billion tax cut over 10 years also would allow self-employed workers to deduct their health insurance premiums from their taxable income, beginning in January.
It would be paid for with money McCain's bill generates.
"If we're raising taxes for tens of billions of dollars for spending, then why not give part of it back?" Gramm said.
"It's a little more palatable," said Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the bill's highest-ranking opponent. "But it's still a bad bill."