[StarFan]

I'm confused as approximately four minutes ago foxnews broke away from their regular programming to announce that Cheney will be breaking the tie vote momentarily. Watching C-Span now to get a better read on it.

[William McKinley]

I was watching it. They broke away to say the Cheney did vote to break the tie. They showed John Breaux railing about it, and he was talking about what they had just done.

[William McKinley]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/906941.asp?0cv=CB10

WASHINGTON, May 15 — The Senate moved closer Thursday to passing Republican-drafted tax cut legislation when Vice President Dick Cheney broke a tie to approve a proposal to suspend taxes on stock dividends for three years. The vote sidestepped a major obstacle to Senate work on the $350 billion package of tax cuts, which, if passed, would still face difficult bargaining on a compromise between House members and senators.

...

The main stumbling block in the Senate had been President Bush’s proposal to eliminate taxes on dividends. Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., broke the logjam by offering an amendment to go ahead with that tax break but phase it out after three years, answering the objections of moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats that the break would balloon the deficit.
Nickles’ plan would eliminate taxes on 50 percent of dividend income for one year, then eliminate the whole dividend tax for three years. The full tax would resume in 2007.

[William McKinley]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&e=1&u=/ap/20030515/ap_on_go_co/congress_taxes

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Thursday to suspend taxes on stock dividends for three years, restoring the centerpiece of President Bush's economic plan in a package of tax cuts that is still half the size he wanted.


"It would encourage investment, it would encourage jobs, it would encourage growth," Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., said just before Vice President Dick Cheney cast the tie-breaking ballot in the 51-50 vote to abolish dividend taxes in 2004, 2005 and 2006