WASHINGTON - Republicans pushed a 2001 budget through the House Budget Committee yesterday that envisions a more modest tax cut than George W. Bush wants, exposing the conflicting political needs of Bush and GOP lawmakers in this election year.
The overall $1.82 trillion spending plan passed by a near party-line 23-18 vote, with only Representative Mac Collins, a Georgia Republican, defecting. Panel Chairman John Kasich said he expects the full House to approve the measure next week, when the Senate plans to work on its own version.
The measure signals conflicts ahead between Congress and President Clinton, who in a statement said Republicans ''took a first step on a risky budget that threatens to undermine the fiscal discipline that has led to our current economic prosperity.''
But the GOP plan also demonstrates differences between GOP lawmakers and Bush, the presumed Republican presidential nominee.
Bush has made a five-year, $483 billion tax cut a defining issue of his campaign in a bid to rally conservatives to his cause.
Congressional Republicans would specifically set aside $150 billion for tax cuts, though they would leave room for perhaps $90 billion more. Their plan reflects a desire to avoid another veto fight over taxes with Clinton and to satisfy internal demands for more spending for defense and some domestic programs.
The congressional GOP plan covers fiscal 2001 through 2005, while Bush's would not begin until 2002. Through 2005, Bush's package would cost about $300 billion, Kasich estimated, leaving the two plans ''in close proximity,'' the Ohio Republican said.
Even so, underlining the differences between the two sides, Republicans on the budget panel sidestepped an effort by Democrats to force them to vote on putting Bush's tax cuts into the budget. And from campaign headquarters in Austin, the Texas governor's spokeswoman, Mindy Tucker, distanced Bush from the House GOP package.
''We believe it's possible to meet basic needs, fund priorities and return money to the taxpayers without increasing spending as rapidly as this proposal contemplates,'' Tucker said.
But she also said Bush ''does recognize the pressure Congress currently has with a Democrat president who is pressuring them to spend money on bigger government. That will not be a problem with a President Bush.''
The committee's budget is a blueprint for spending and tax legislation Congress will work on later this year.
As the budget panel worked on the plan, Democrats tried repeatedly - and unsuccessfully - to shrink the tax cut, beef up the Social Security and Medicare trust funds and boost spending for debt reduction and education. The votes were mostly party line.
The tax cuts in the GOP budget are about $50 billion deeper than Clinton has proposed.
It would provide $307 billion for next year's defense budget, $1 billion higher than Clinton's plan. Its $290 billion for domestic programs ranging from parkland purchases to bureaucrats' pencils is nearly $30 billion less than Clinton prefers.
Both Clinton and congressional Republicans would set aside all $977 billion in projected Social Security surpluses through 2005 for debt reduction.
