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- <text id=93TT1353>
- <title>
- Apr. 05, 1993: Easy Win in the Senate
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Apr. 05, 1993 The Generation That Forgot God
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 14
- NATION
- Easy Win in the Senate
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>An earliest ever budget measure passes; stimulus might face
- trouble
- </p>
- <p> "The whip has been cracked," grumbled Republican curmudgeon
- Jesse Helms. Yes, and hard enough that a rare visit by Vice
- President Al Gore to the Senate chamber turned out to be
- totally unnecessary; there was no tie for him to break.
- President Bill Clinton's budget resolution sailed through, 54
- to 45, with only two Democrats joining a solid Republican bloc
- in opposition to the proposal.
- </p>
- <p> That result was foreshadowed by a closer vote on a
- Republican amendment attacking what the G.O.P. claims is the
- President's most unpopular proposal: to impose income tax on 85%
- of the Social Security pensions of upper-income retirees, vs.
- 50% now. The Republican bid to reject that idea lost by a vote
- of 52 to 47. The final vote marked the first time since the
- present procedure was adopted in 1974 that the Senate had
- approved a budget resolution as early as March. Because the
- House of Representatives previously passed an only slightly
- different measure, odds are that a compromise setting broad
- dollar goals for spending and revenues will clear the full
- Congress before the Easter recess starts on April 2.
- </p>
- <p> A much dicier showdown, however, is coming this week, when
- the Senate takes up Clinton's plan for a quick $16 billion
- spending stimulus to the economy. Again it faces solid
- Republican opposition (though probably not a filibuster), and
- this time more conservative Democrats may defect. Clinton
- planned to get on the telephone to waverers, and his bill
- probably will pass in some form. But without weakening
- amendments? Stay tuned.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
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