Senator Grassley answers criticism over budget

Senator Charles Grassley is fuming over criticism lobbed his way from fellow Republicans. On Friday, Grassley struck a deal in the Senate that scaled back the President’s tax cut package. Over the weekend, Republican leaders in the U-S House — including fellow Iowa Republican Jim Nussle — harshly criticized Grassley. Yesterday afternoon, the Iowa Republican Party’s chairman said he hoped Grassley would work to pass a larger tax cut. Grassley says he spent two hours with Iowa G-O-P chairman Chuck Larson yesterday morning, and Larson never said a thing. Grassley says after three weeks of arm-twisting, the President’s full tax cut was still two votes short of passing the Senate. Grassley, who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, says “leadership requires taking chances and calling the shots.” Grassley says he came to the conclusion that 350-billion dollars in tax cuts was better than nothing, and he says “somebody had to make a decision.” He says if they’d followed the reasoning of House Republicans or his state chairman, they’d never would’ve had a budget.Grassley says if President Bush was that dead set against Grassley’s deal, he wouldn’t have sent the Vice President to cast the deciding, 51st vote that passed Grassley’s plan through the Senate last week. A seven-hundred-26 billion dollar tax cut was the centerpiece of President Bush’s economic stimulus package.