Senators Turn Back Effort to Increase Taxes on Rich

WASHINGTON —  The Senate today voted 55 to 45 to defeat an effort to raise taxes on the rich and to also moderate a Medicare premium increase as it struggled to complete work on a deficit-reduction plan.

The vote killed an amendment by Sens. Albert Gore Jr. (D-Tenn.) and Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) that would have scaled back increases in gasoline taxes and Medicare premiums and substituted a House-approved, three-pronged attack on those with higher incomes.

“Do we want to ask senior citizens in the hospital to pay more so the wealthiest in our society can pay less?” Gore asked.

“The middle class has no more to give,” Mikulski said.

Democratic leaders praised the aim of the amendment but said it would have killed the deficit-reduction package because President Bush has promised to veto any plan raising the top tax rate on the wealthiest Americans to 33%. The proposal would have raised that rate from 28%.

“What we have tried to do is put together a package the President will sign,” said Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), chairman of the Finance Committee. “There is substantial divergence with what came out of the House. . . . We will end up with something that is in between.”

A key element of the Senate’s deficit plan is a 9 1/2-cent increase in the gasoline tax. The Senate voted Wednesday to leave that provision intact. The Gore-Mikulski amendment would have provided a 6-cent increase.

The Gore-Mikulski amendment is one of more than two dozen ready for Senate consideration, many of which are designed to move the Senate bill closer to the soak-the-rich package that won House approval Tuesday.

The amendment would be attached to a measure raising taxes and reducing benefit programs by $250 billion over the next five years.

The bill is on a fast track that congressional leaders hope could place it on President Bush’s desk for his signature Friday night.