posted on May 10, 2006 05:05:12 PM new
MORE G.O.P. TAX CUTS THAT FAVOR THE RICH AND INDUSTRY. MORE WAR ON THE MIDDLE AND WORKING CLASS AMERICAN.
House Passes Bush Tax Cuts
Bill Calls For $70B In Cuts; Senate Expected To OK Measure On Thursday
WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006
Fast Facts
The bill devotes $21 billion to a two-year extension of the reduced 15 percent tax rate for capital gains and dividends, currently set to expire at the end of 2008.
(CBS/AP) The House on Wednesday passed a bill sought by President Bush to deliver tax cuts to investors and to keep 15 million taxpayers from being hit by the alternative minimum tax.
The House passed the $70 billion tax-cut measure by a 244-185 vote. The Senate is expected to approve the bill Thursday.
The bill devotes $21 billion to a two-year extension of the reduced 15 percent tax rate for capital gains and dividends, currently set to expire at the end of 2008.
It would also extend, for this year, recent changes to the alternative minimum tax, originally aimed at making sure the wealthy pay at least some taxes to prevent it from hitting more upper middle-income families.
And it would keep 15 million families from being hit this year with the alternative minimum tax, which was designed to make sure the wealthy paid taxes but is ensnaring more upper middle-income families because it was not indexed for inflation. The cost of this one-year AMT \"patch\" is $34 billion.
\"What we do today protects jobs, protects the incomes of our people, strengthens America\'s economy and protects our future,\" Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., said Wednesday.
Critics, including many Democrats, have attacked the tax-rate reductions on dividends and capital gains as being largely tilted to the wealthy. They say provisions should not be extended at a time of large budget deficits and massive spending for the war in Iraq.
For those with income of $50,000 or less, the average saving is no more than $46. those with income of up to $100,000 average no more than about $400 saved; those with income of $100,000 to $1 million save anywhere from $1,300 to $5,500. Taxpayers with more than $1 million in income will average nearly $42,000 a year in savings, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.
Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., said during House debate that Republicans keep \"passing bills that raise our deficits and increase our staggering debt, while they give away big tax breaks for the wealthiest corporations in the world and provide more obscene tax relief for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.
\"And the rest of America gets left behind at the restaurant, holding the check.\"
The agreement capped weeks of talks among GOP lawmakers over how to go ahead on their party\'s tax agenda. They had to decide how best to deal with a rule that lets them advance up to $70 billion in cuts in a way that would prevent any filibuster from Senate Democrats.
If the bill passes the Senate, Mr. Bush would achieve one of his top tax priorities and give his GOP allies on Capitol Hill a victory in times of sagging poll numbers.
As CBS News corespondent Gloria Borger reports, the GOP is going back to its basics — tax cuts. \"This is something the president really wanted, he lobbied for this, he personally called the committee chairman on this measure because now the White House understands they have to get together with House Republicans and start agreeing with Republicans on something,\" Borger says.
Republicans devised a strategy to advance the investor tax breaks and alternative minimum tax relief in a first, filibuster-proof bill, then use a second bill for other tax breaks.
The second bill, expected to cost perhaps $30 billion, is to contain a number of widely backed tax breaks, among them a tuition tax deduction, a tax break for teachers who buy their own school supplies and a research and development tax credit for businesses.
But top Senate Finance Committee Democrat Max Baucus of Montana said Wednesday that the benefits of \"capital gains and dividend reductions are outweighed by the cost of the deficits\" they create. Many economists believe budget deficits put upward pressure on interest rates.
Treasury Secretary John Snow asserted that the tax breaks that would be extended have ushered in a period of rising business investment and strong economic growth. \"When you get investment occurring and strong GDP growth, you get jobs,\" he said.
Under the bill, wealthier people would be allowed to transfer retirement savings into Roth IRAs. This would provide a shorter-term revenue boost, which helped lawmakers fit more measures into the bill. That\'s because money moved from traditional IRAs into Roth accounts is taxed immediately, instead of later, when taxpayers withdraw their invested money.
Opponents say the Roth plan would help the Treasury now but shortchange the government in the future years because money saved in a Roth IRA grows tax free.
The bill also would extend for two years provisions sought by small businesses to let them write off up to $100,000 in investments in equipment.
posted on May 10, 2006 06:36:40 PM newbut is ensnaring more upper middle-income families because it was not indexed for inflation
Seems to me they saved some middle-income families some problems. Oops I forgot you dislike people who better themselves and no longer need a government handout.
posted on May 10, 2006 08:46:09 PM new
washingtonebayer,
What are you going to buy with the $46.00 in taxes you will save? Maybe pay a little interest on your adjustable home loans? How about a full tank of gas in your imported car.LOL
Conservatives can't keep coming up with the same OLD LIES and think its going to help them.
HEY ALL YOU 46 DOLLAR GUYS AND GALS COME ON OVER AND JOIN THE GREAT AMERICAN PROTEST ON NOVEMBER 7th 2006.
posted on May 11, 2006 08:12:17 AM new
The more the dumbazz posts, the more he exposes what a complete moron the guy is.
.
.
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Many misleading tricks in 2006. The new Demomoron slogan.
posted on May 11, 2006 09:17:59 AM new
Tax-Cut Bill Prompts Partisan Wrangling
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
May 11, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - Darned Republicans, say Democrats, giving more tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. Darned Democrats, say Republicans, opposing a bill that will encourage further economic growth.
And so goes the long-running argument in Washington over tax-cut legislation.
The latest round of sniping came after the House passed a bill Thursday that will extend for two years the lower tax rate on capital gains and dividend income.
In a nod to the middle class, the bill also removes some 15-million Americans from the clutches of the alternative minimum tax, something that once applied only to wealthy Americans but now ensnares millions of middle-class earners.
The Senate is expected to pass the bill by the end of the week, and President Bush will sign it if and when it reaches his desk.
Familiar arguments
Votes on tax bills give both Republicans and Democrats political ammunition, especially in an election year.
On Thursday, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called the Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act of 2005. (H.R. 4297) "the latest example of middle-class families and future generations paying the price for misguided Republican priorities."
According to Pelosi, the tax-cut bill "will increase our debt, cut taxes for the super-rich, and do little for Americans struggling under skyrocketing gas prices"
Pelosi and other Democrats blame President Bush for turning record surpluses into a record deficit, and they say the $70-billion tax-cut bill will boost the nation's debt.
Class envy
Democrats frequently resort to emotional arguments intended to make those who are not wealthy resent those who are.
Pelosi did it on Thursday: "Most middle-class families won't even be able to fill up their car with a full tank of gas with the tax cut that Republicans are giving them. Instead, millionaires will be able to buy a new luxury car.
"Middle-class families don't get any help from this bill. Students with schools loans don't get any help. Innovative businesses don't get any help. But Big Oil does," Pelosi added. She complained that Republicans stripped the bill of provisions that would have made oil and gas companies "pay their fair share of taxes."
"Democrats stand for fiscal responsibility, fairness, and investing in our future," Pelosi said. "It is time to take the country in a new direction -- one that works for all Americans, not just the few."
'Democrats stand for tax hikes'
That's right, said the Republican National Committee - the Democrats' agenda, and their effort to "take the country in a new direction," depends on tax increases.
"More than five million jobs have been created since President Bush signed bipartisan tax relief into law," said the RNC's Tracey Schmitt. Democrats would jeopardize that, she added, with their "real agenda" of raising taxes.
"The centerpiece of Walter Mondale's failed presidential campaign -- higher taxes -- was not new in 1984 and today's Democrat vote to return to 'Mondalenomics' represents an old choice, not a new agenda for the American people," said RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman.
Some analysts say extending the tax cut on investments will goose the stock market and juice the economy, just as earlier tax cuts did.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) called Wednesday a "day of celebration" for the American people.
"We have prevented Democrats like Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean, once again, from giving American citizens a tax increase. This tax relief deal is good news for our families and good news for the American economy," Hastert said in a press release.
"The American economy has surged because of Republican tax relief. Unemployment is at 4.7 percent. More than 2 million jobs have been created in the last year. Consumer confidence is up. Productivity is up. Factory orders are up. And again, did I mention that more and more Americans are getting jobs and earning a paycheck to care for their families?
"We all know that our tax relief sparked this economic growth," Hastert said. He said extending the tax cuts will "add another spark to the already booming economy."
"As we have said time and time again, when the economy grows, American families prosper."
Hastert promised that House Republicans will keep working to make tax relief permanent, to protect Americans from the "tax-and-spend ways" of Democrats.
The House vote in favor of the tax-cut bill was 244-185.
"“More Iraqis think things are going well in Iraq than Americans do. I guess they don’t get the New York Times over there.”—Jay Leno".
