House committee approves plan to cut taxes.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

WASHINGTON _ The House Ways and Means Committee took a first, small step Thursday toward enacting President Bush's income-tax cut, approving a reduction that would save individuals and families about $3.50 to $7 a week this year.

The cut, retroactive to Jan. 1, would result from dropping the lowest tax bracket, now 15 percent, to 12 percent for the first $12,000 for married couples and $6,000 for singles.

The plan the committee approved 23-15, on a straight party-line vote, phases in even greater cuts over a six-year period, ending with just four tax brackets of 10 percent, 15 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent, replacing the five current brackets, which go up to 39.6 percent.

Democrats promptly seized on the modest amount of money in the first year of the tax cut, saying it undermined President Bush's argument that a large tax cut was necessary immediately to animate the flagging economy. The maximum impact of the cut would not occur until 2006, when all the reductions in tax rates would finally take effect.

"The Republicans' tax bill is like one of those miracle weight-loss plans where one is supposed to lose 25 pounds in three days _ one pound on day one, one pound on day two and 23 pounds on day three," said Rep. Jim McDermott, a Washington Democrat. "It is so back-loaded that it provides very little, if any, economic stimulus."

A Democratic alternative that would have cut taxes faster but less was defeated 26-12. Three Democrats who voted against their own party's plan argued that Congress should adopt a budget before acting on tax cuts.

The cuts in income tax rates are the largest component of Bush's 10-year $1.6 trillion tax plan. They would reduce taxes by about $958 billion over 10 years. Committee Chairman William Thomas, R-Calif., plans to deal with other elements of the Bush plan, including raising the child tax credit and eliminating the estate tax and the so-called marriage penalty, after the House of Representatives acts on the income tax rate reductions.