The Hill News

The Senate's second-ranking Democrat questioned GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty's new economic plan, suggesting his tax cuts were little more than warmed-over Bush administration policies.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) took a shot at Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor who on Tuesday outlined a set of economic reform proposals that would slash personal and corporate tax rates while, Pawlenty says, spurring job growth.

"I might say to most of his critics, including one who had a little clip on before I appeared here: Listen closely to what their plan is," Durbin said on MSNBC, referring to an earlier clip of Pawlenty. "It sounds like the same old religion, the sa! me thing we tried and failed with that led us into the recession."

Pawlenty proposed reducing the corporate tax rate to 15 percent and cutting the top individual rate to 25 percent. He would offset some of the costs of these tax cuts by eliminating a number of tax loopholes and credits and assuming stronger economic growth than has been typical in recent years.

Durbin likened Pawlenty's proposals to what had previously been tried during the Bush administration.

"Tax cuts for the wealthy have been tried. If you remember, this is the 10th anniversary of President Bush's tax cuts," he said. "And in the first three years after those tax cuts were put in place, we saw two things happen: a dramatic increase in the deficit, and a decline in the number of Americans going to work. I don't think that we need to return to those two policies."