REP. EMERSON VOTES AGAINST REPUBLICAN TAX-CUT MEASURE

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson voted against her own party's tax-cut bill Saturday because she said it was a "political gimmick" and didn't protect Social Security.

The GOP-backed bill passed the House on a 229-195 vote. Only 11 Republicans voted against the measure, including Emerson. She was the only Republican member of the Missouri delegation to vote against the tax-cut plan.

The bill, which provides tax cuts of $80 billion over five years, would benefit married couples, farmers, small-business operators, working senior citizens, people with modest savings accounts and students saving for private colleges.

But it would have financed the tax cuts with a small part of the $1.6 trillion budget surplus forecast over the next decade.

Emerson and many Democrats wanted to use the budget surplus to put the Social Security system back on sound financial footing. It is estimated that the retirement system could run out of money by 2030.

Tax cuts are needed, Emerson said Monday from Washington. But she said Congress should follow its own budget rules and reduce government spending to pay for any tax cuts.

"We shouldn't be politicizing this issue," the Cape Girardeau Republican said. "I don't like election-year gimmicks."

Said Emerson: "We need to be fiscally prudent. We need to pay our debts first."

Both of her opponents in the fall election -- Democrat Tony Heckemeyer of Sikeston and Libertarian John Hendricks of Jackson -- have objected to the tax-cut plan, arguing that the surplus should be placed in the Social Security trust fund.

Emerson backed a proposal by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., on Friday that would have earmarked 100 percent of the budget surplus for Social Security and have removed the trust fund from the federal budget.

Under the plan, the trust fund would have been managed by the Federal Reserve Board in New York, with the money put in 100 percent government-backed investments, Emerson said.

The House rejected the Democratic plan.

Emerson then voted with the majority of members for a Republican measure that earmarked 90 percent of the budget surplus for Social Security.