Reuters: Grassley: Tax Cuts May Reach $450 Billion. Congress could end up passing a tax cut package of as much as $450 billion — less than demanded by President Bush but more than so far agreed to by the Senate, a key Republican said yesterday.
In a sane nation, even the $350 billion “compromise” that Senate Republicans say they want would be a sick joke. In today’s America, it’s an insufficient giveaway to the richest few among us.
But Bush is brazen, and he is steamrollering a weak — no, spinelesss — Congress that has almost no alternatives of its own.
Surprisingly, one Democrat has offered a serious alternative to the Bush tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy orgy — Rep. Richard Gephardt’s health-care proposal that would cost about the same as Bush’s favors for his friends.