… AND ON THE HOME FRONT

The surprise reversal of the president’s tax cut, with the Senate yesterday halving the amount requested, was an encouraging sign that Congress is coming to appreciate the danger of the course it has set for itself through its debate on a budget resolution. By reducing the tax-cut size to $350 billion, it has taken the first step toward putting essential programs ahead of immediate tax reductions for some payers. The close vote, however, could still be overturned, and there remain programs still badly underfunded.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, who led the centrists in crafting the $350 billion, 10-year proposal, voted in favor of the change; Sen. Susan Collins, opposed it and earlier amendments to add money to programs such as child care. The successful amendment yesterday would use the portion of the money previously proposed for the tax cut to overhaul Social Security or for deficit reduction.

Some of the complaints about the original size of the tax cut came from a seemingly unusual source. Thirteen law-enforcement officers in Maine joined hundreds nationwide to support programs like Head Start, early child care for pre-schoolers and after-school programs for older kids fully funded, at a cost of approximately $8.5 billion a year, presumably to be taken from the tax-cut plan. Police don’t often embroil themselves in congressional debate but they did this time for good reason: the programs they want to see funded reduce crime. High quality care of children at an early age has been shown to reduce the number of children who later in life get in legal trouble and serve time in prison. And the savings from pursuing this strategy, according to a well-regarded long-term study in Michigan, are substantial. Not only are communities safer and lives saved rather than ruined – every dollar spent on early care saves $7, including prison costs. The vote to protect money needed for Social Security was welcome, but these programs should not be ignored either.

Sen. Collins has maintained that tax cuts should wait until after the cost of the war is known. The bill for the down payment arrived yesterday. It is $74.7 billion, and there will be more to come. The tax cut proposal was too large when it was introduced. Now, considering the cost of the war, and the pressing need to fund programs for older Americans and those that help the youngest, the picture is clear enough to make the original tax cut estimate of $726 billion dangerously high. It could be strongly argued that the $350 billion also is too large.

But that’s the most reasonable number available to the Senate now, and given the 51-48 vote by which the measure passed Tuesday, it will need to be defended today.