Bush has votes to pass budget in Senate

From CNN White House Correspondent Major Garrett

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House scored a major victory Thursday by securing support from all 50 Senate Republicans for President Bush's budget, which contains his $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut and a $60 billion immediate tax cut this year.

Early Thursday, the White House had pledges from 47 of the 50 Republicans. Commitments from the other three were won late Thursday at a meeting called by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.

ALSO Democrats want to expedite $60 billion tax rebate     DOCUMENT President Bush's tax proposal Documents in PDF format require Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing.     RESOURCE Whitehouse.gov: President Bush's budget blueprint     INTERACTIVE How will Bush's proposal affect your tax bracket? Compare: 2001 budget vs. Bush's proposed 2002 budget     IN-DEPTH CNNfn: Tax Time     MESSAGE BOARD Taxing and spending

Lott appealed to the reluctant Republicans to stand with the party to protect Mr. Bush's budget and their ability to control the legislative agenda in a 50-50 Senate, sources told CNN.

"We've got the votes," said a senior Senate Republican aide. "And it's because members understood this was about the president's agenda and our ability to control the floor."

Democrats had threatened a raft of delaying tactics to push consideration of the Bush budget beyond Congress's scheduled Easter recess, which begins April 6. "They were trying to play stall ball and they overplayed their hand," a GOP Senate source said. "The stalling tactics drove our members back to us."

Republicans are desperate to conclude work on the budget and present the outline to Mr. Bush before the end of his first 100 days in office, which is April 30.

A senior administration official told CNN the White House was increasingly optimistic Thursday of securing unanimous party support on the budget resolution and that the Lott meeting was the final ingredient.

"This is not a surprise," the official said. "We have worked very hard."

Significantly, no senior administration officials were present. All through the week Vice President Cheney, Budget Director Mitch Daniels and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill answered questions about the president's budget and lobbied Republicans.

But unanimity on the budget blueprint does not guarantee full GOP support later this year when Mr. Bush's tax cut comes to the floor. Among the late converts on the budget blueprint, Sens. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and James Jeffords of Vermont reserved the right to oppose the president's tax bill later this year.

Another source said the White House's lack of involvement in the campaign finance reform debate -- where many Republican moderates ignored party orthodoxy and voted against amendments that could have killed the McCain-Feingold campaign reform bill -- built up a greater degree of loyalty to the president's position on the budget.

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The White House
 • U.S. President George W. Bush

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