The Brookings Institution All Rights Reserved. To the surprise of no one, the massive Republican tax cut bill of 1999 sank from sight as soon as President Clinton vetoed it. Having passed it by slim margins, the GOP majority in Congress made no attempt to override, and a huge public yawn soon stilled brave Republican tax cut talk. The year ended anticlimactically with the extension of a handful of expiring tax cuts. 2000 Republican leaders in Congress are singing a more subdued song this year.
Plans center on tax cuts only about one-sixth as large as last year's.
This year's brave talk is that the president will have to sign the bill. Don't bet the lunch money on that. President Clinton routed the Republicans with his veto of the Gingrich Reconciliation Bill in 1995. He vetoed the tax cut last year. In between he routinely overpowered Congress on spending decisions.