Lieberman Suggests $300 to Every Taxpayer Now March 25, 2001 6:45 pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the unsuccessful Democratic vice presidential nominee, said on Sunday he will propose an immediate tax refund that would mean a $300 check for all Americans who work. Appearing on the "Fox News Sunday" program, Lieberman said his plan would do what President George W. Bush's did not -- provide prompt relief to taxpayers, presumably injecting new life into the dormant economy.

"Get money into people's pockets," the Connecticut Democrat said. "My idea is don't tie it to any long-range deal, because if we try to work that out, it will be next year before we get any money back to people."

He said he planned to outline full details of his plan in a speech on Monday at George Washington University. He said he would tie the benefit to the year's budget surplus, which should provide more than $60 billion.

"Let's cut checks and send what comes to $300 to every one of the almost 200 million taxpayers in America -- mom, dad, kids, whoever worked and does the payroll tax or income tax," he said.

Under his plan, "anybody who has money taken out of their paychecks for payroll taxes, Social Security and Medicare, or anybody who pays the income tax would be entitled to the check," and it would not be limited to just one per family.

"Anybody who has a job," Lieberman said. "So this gives money to almost 200 million people in the country. The odds are ... they're going to spend it. And that's what the economy needs for a bit of a lift right now."

He said he would propose the benefit be tax-free.

"That's a part of what I'm going to talk about tomorrow... when I say the president's tax plan is not a plan for continuing America's prosperity," Lieberman said. "It's just basically giving the money out. I worry about it, because one of the first bad things it does is to spend more than we have any reason to believe we're going to have, and that will take us back into deficit."

Lieberman's proposal follows word last week from Senate Republicans that they would support providing $60 billion in tax relief this year, possibly in the form of a tax rebate.

But Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, rejected the bid to link the economic stimulus effort to a broader $983 billion package of across-the-board rate cuts. Daschle said the stimulus would get bogged down in wrangling over the long-term tax cut package.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2001