Max Baucus: “I cannot support his amendment, certainly not at this time. I agree with him that this tax bill is too big. In fact, I…”

“I cannot support his amendment, certainly not at this time. I agree with him that this tax bill is too big. In fact, I argued to the President that he ought to propose a much smaller bill for the first 5 years and then, if the budget surpluses materialize, we can look at another tax cut. That way, if the surpluses don't materialize, this country is protected. We certainly don't know with a great degree of certainty what the budget surplus is going to be 10 years out. The President did not agree with my suggestion, but it is a position that makes a lot more sense and is better public policy, if we were to pursue that direction. Unfortunately, we are not in that position today, as the Senator well knows. The main argument the Senator makes--one that has a lot of merit to it--is an argument that he and others made on the budget resolution. But that argument was not successful, and the budget resolution has passed with $1.35 trillion in tax cuts locked in. That is where we are today. I agree with him that this is still too large a tax cut, though at least it is smaller than the President's earlier proposal of $1.6 trillion, so that is some progress.”