Reid likely to cross party lines, back GOP tax cut

Scott Sonner

Saturday, Sept. 26, 1998 | 2:39 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat locked in a tight race for re-election, said Saturday he's leaning toward supporting the $80 billion tax cut approved by the Republican-led House.

"It looks pretty reasonable to me," Reid told The Associated Press after the House vote Saturday.

Rep. John Ensign, his GOP challenger, said before the vote he thought it had the potential to be a defining difference between himself and Reid in the November election.

"This is a complete contrast between Senator Reid and myself. I stand for tax cuts and he has consistently voted for tax increases," Ensign said in a telephone interview.

Reid responded later Saturday, "Doesn't he wish."

The House sent the sweeping measure to the Senate on a 229-195 vote despite complaints from President Clinton and House Democrats that it jeopardizes the future of Social Security.

Reid, seeking his third term, said he would not hesitate to cross party lines and support the measure in the face of Clinton's opposition.

"I have tried to have a record of doing what I think is right regardless of the partisan aspects of it," Reid said.

The political foes have been waging a high-pitched battle on the airwaves since April - Ensign calling Reid a tax-and-spend liberal and Reid calling Ensign a conservative extremist.

Republicans targeted Reid early on as one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in the Senate this year. Both national parties have been pouring money into the campaign.

Ensign said Democrats were using a false argument about Social Security to mask their preference of spending U.S. tax dollars on foreign countries and bailing out the International Monetary Fund.

"They are saying it is OK to spend it on Bosnians and on the IMF, but not okay to give it back to the American people," Ensign said in a telephone interview from Washington.

"I think we ought to start putting Americans first," he said.

Republicans got 19 Democratic votes in the House, but the margin was far short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. Eleven Republicans voted against the bill.

On a 227-197 vote earlier Saturday, the House defeated an effort by Democrats to put in place a "trigger" that would only permit the tax cuts if Congress ensures Social Security will remain solvent.

President Clinton said during a fundraising trip in California Saturday the GOP tax plan "drains billions of dollars from the surplus before we have done the hard work of strengthening Social Security.

"I will insist that we reserve the entire surplus until we have seized this historic opportunity to save Social Security, and veto any bill that doesn't meet that principle," Clinton said.

Ensign said, "Not a dime of this comes out of the Social Security Trust Fund.

"As a matter of fact, we are putting almost $700 billion into the trust fund," he said.

Ensign, in his second term in the House, said he was challenging Reid "to do what is right for Nevadans and vote for this tax cut.

"If you leave this money in Washington, the politicians will spend it," he said.

"To oppose this plan is to punish husbands and wives, ranchers and farmers, senior citizens and businesses. That's who this tax cut helps."

Reid said in a telephone interview from Las Vegas on Saturday he had not reviewed the final version of the House-passed bill but was inclined to support it.

"As I understand the proposal, they have reserved 90 percent of the surplus for Social Security. That sounds reasonable," he told AP.

Reid said Ensign was wrong to try to use the issue to draw distinctions between them.

"Typically when Congressman Ensign says it is a defining issue he is wrong," the senator said.

"He thought this would be a real entertaining thing for him to do. He is missing the mark on this tax issue as he is on all other tax issues relating to me."