Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo.

This is a partial transcript from Your World with Neil Cavuto, March 25, 2003, that was edited for clarity. Click here for complete access to all of Neil Cavuto's CEO interviews.

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NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Moving onto Washington, in a surprising and unexpected twist, the Republican-led Senate voting to slash the president's proposed tax cut in half. That's a big disappointment to the Bush administration and to our next guest. Joining us now, Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri.

Senator, what happened?

SEN. CHRISTOPHER "KIT" BOND, R-MO.: Well, it's been a very close vote. And one of the people voting with us in support of the president was absent and a couple of our members voted with the Democrats, a couple of their people voted with us. We lost that vote. But the fat lady has not sung yet. The game is not over. And we hope that there will be an opportunity to restore some of those cuts, because I think the economy does need the kind of stimulus the president is providing.

CAVUTO: But what if you have to live with this, roughly the half figure that you wanted originally, would the dividend tax cut that the president wants be the easiest thing to junk?

BOND: Well, I don't serve on the Finance Committee...

CAVUTO: But what would you like, if you had your choice, that would neatly take care of that for you?

BOND: Frankly, I would like to have both dividend tax cut and moving up the reduction in rates. I think that Alan Greenspan and many others have made the good, strong argument over the years that the best stimulus we can give to the economy is lower the marginal rates, which have crept back up into areas where they discourage investment and savings.

CAVUTO: So Senator, let me focus on that, I want to focus on that. You are saying that if you had your preference, it is the marginal rates.

BOND: No.

CAVUTO: No?

BOND: I think a case has been well-made by many economists and by the president that it would immediately spur business investment to have an elimination of the couple taxation on dividends. Frankly, I hope that we could work to get both, and we will see what we can get enough votes for on the floor to go as far as we can. And definitely, the decision point is not here. We will have to wait and see what the numbers are and how much we can get in with the budget area, with the budget provisions we have.

CAVUTO: So, it is a drop dead kind of moment for you, Senator, if you had a choice with the president's dividend tax, if it came to that, or just accelerating these income tax rate reductions, what would you do?

BOND: I am a budget geek and there are a lot of things. This game is not over. Talk to me when it is over, if we know that we are locked in at a low figure, then I will sit down and figure out which one is better. Right now we are trying to work with and support Don Nickles and the Republican budget chairman, and going into conference with the house and we hope that we will get a number that will enable to us do both.

CAVUTO: OK, Senator Kit Bond, always a pleasure, sir, I appreciate it very much.

BOND: Thank you.

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