Unveiling his IRS reform bill today, Senate Finance Committee chairman William Roth, R-Del., acknowledged it could cost $20 billion over ten years--three times the cost of the House bill.
He offered "no definitive" answers on how to pay for it, but insisted "it will be paid for." Asked whether he would be willing to give up some of the $60 billion in tax cuts he has called for--double the Senate fiscal 1999 budget resolution assumptions--to pay for the IRS bill, Roth said, "I want both."
The price tag on Roth's bill is due in part to so-called innocent spouse relief and penalty and interest reform which he said are essential "to get at the abuses we have found."
Meanwhile, Sen. Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C., and five other senators sent a letter to Roth urging the IRS reform bill not be paid for by any new taxes. Roth declined comment on his talks with Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., or Budget Committee chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., about his call for more generous tax cuts.
"You'll have to ask them," Roth said. "All I can say is I am in favor of significant tax cuts."
Separately, Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., today said Democrats will raise a budget point of order against Roth's IRS reform bill, arguing that it costs four times more than the House version, which Democrats support.
"I don't think you can offset the costs of this bill in the manner Sen. Roth has proposed," Daschle told reporters, adding the Finance chairman will not have the 60 votes to overcome that budget point of order.
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