TAX CUT WIN CAPS "CONTRACT"

The House tonight passed the GOP $189 billion tax cut package by a vote of 246-188, capping the Republican leadership's 100-day"Contract With America"agenda eight days ahead of schedule. The measure, sure to be toned down in the Senate, blends a $500-per-child tax credit to families earning up to $200,000 a year with tax breaks long sought by businesses. It also reduces the marriage tax penalty, expands IRA savings accounts and provides tax incentives for adoption and elder care. Democrats launched several last-minute assaults on the bill, but House Speaker Newt Gingrich rallied previously-divided GOP ranks to muscle it through. Minutes before the final vote, Gingrich advised lawmakers to ask themselves: "In your constituents' lives, won't a little less money for government and a little more money for those families be a good thing, and isn't that what this Congress was elected to do?"