Tax cut debate takes center stage on Hill

Capitol Hill this week will attempt to move beyond the trauma of Friday's shootings and get back to work on the budget, tax cuts and other issues.

House and Senate Republican leaders are expected this week to continue trying to figure out how, or if, to handle the tax cut plan unveiled last week by House Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio. Senate Republicans have said the tax cut figures may be too big and that they would need 60 votes to pass the plan in the Senate, a threshold they said they could not reach. But House conservatives last week began circulating a letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., asking the Senate to "be part of our team."

Senate GOP members have expressed their concerns with the tax cut measure unveiled last week by Kasich that would set aside $338 billion for Social Security and $167 billion for tax cuts over the first five years and $700 billion each over 10 years for Social Security and tax cuts.

House GOP conservatives are hoping the entire House Republican Conference will sign the letter to be sent to Lott today. "The American people did not elect us to sit on $1.6 trillion worth of extra money, their money, so that politicians could use it to fulfill their tax and spend agenda," the conservatives said in the letter.

But several Republicans Ways and Means Committee members said they are uneasy about signing off on the massive tax cut.