Inside the Beltway

Class-warfare struggle

House Democrats have taken to comparing discretionary federal spending levels for fiscal 2004 — which rises at more than the rate of inflation yet again — with the latest income-tax cuts championed by President Bush and passed by the Republican Congress.

During debate in the House Appropriations Committee before passage of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education spending bill, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, Rhode Island Democrat, turned the gleeful childhood holiday known as the Last Day of School into the greatest of horribles.

“When they don’t go to school, they don’t have a life,” said Mr. Kennedy, arguing for more money for the “latch-key kids” who need summer school programs. Many carefree kids might beg to differ.

Mr. Kennedy also said he was ashamed about the way Republican tax policies treated, um, heirs of Camelot.

“I made my money the old-fashioned way. I inherited it,” Mr. Kennedy said, getting a laugh out of the oldest of jokes. What was not funny, he said, was the way Republicans “are all about elitism and oligarchy” — as opposed to a son of one of America’s most prominent families.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt, Kansas Republican, protested that “to use class warfare in this bill is unfair,” and pointed to “dramatic increases” in all spending programs.

But Rep. Steven R. Rothman, New Jersey Democrat, said, in effect, “tough.”

Republican tax cuts “give a benefit to those who have already done so well,” Mr. Rothman said. They’ve done so smashingly, in fact, that “the top 1 percent [of income-earners] rely on the other 99 percent to empty their bedpans and to mow their lawns,” Mr. Rothman said, prompting more guffaws.

“You are taking $2 trillion away from the government,” said Mr. Rothman, describing Democratic plans to roll back the tax cuts as “prudent spending of the people’s money.”

That prompted Rep. John T. Doolittle, California Republican, to rise.

“We are not going to just sit here in silence,” Mr. Doolittle said. “Please don’t think we’re embarrassed about those tax cuts. We’re proud of these tax cuts. We did it to stimulate the economy.”

With that, Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. Bill Young, Florida Republican, began to keep a tighter leash on nongermane debate.

Elle in Washington

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