GOP Leaders on Hill Agree to (Bush's 5 yr) Extend Middle-Class Tax Cuts

[papau]

Kerry would prefer the extension to be a part of a broader budget package that rolled back tax cuts on affluent households but that he will not stand in the way of the bill, which could come up for a vote in the Senate on Wednesday

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39736-2004Sep21.html

GOP Leaders on Hill Agree to Extend Middle-Class Tax Cuts

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 22, 2004; Page A05

Republican leaders agreed yesterday to extend three middle-class tax cuts for five years, clearing the way for Senate and House votes as early as this week on the fourth tax-cut package in as many years.

The agreement, which would cost the Treasury as much as $150 billion through 2009, was a victory for President Bush, who had scuttled a deal in July to extend the tax cuts for only two years, arguing that he could get a longer extension in the heat of the campaign season.

In securing a five-year deal, the White House had to overcome the objections of some GOP moderates, who wanted the cost offset with spending cuts or other tax increases, and conservatives, who argued for a four-year extension. That way, the popular middle-class tax cuts would have to be extended again when more politically contentious tax cuts, such as last year's deep cuts in capital gains and dividends taxation, would be up for renewal. <snip>

The package would extend the $1,000-per-child tax credit that would shrink to $700 if Congress does not act. Also to be extended are an expanded tax break for married couples and a 10 percent income tax bracket that had been enlarged for just one year in the tax cut Bush signed last year. By including a temporary, one-year fix for the alternative minimum tax, the package would effectively punt the problem of the AMT, which was created to ensure that the affluent pay income taxes but which is increasingly ensnaring the middle class.

Republicans also decided to extend for one year a host of expiring business tax credits that had been part of a larger corporate tax bill languishing on Capitol Hill. The measures, worth as a much as $12 billion, include tax credits for research and development and for hiring welfare recipients, deductions for teachers' classroom expenses, and tax breaks for investment in Lower Manhattan, which is still recovering from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. <snip>

[Larkspur]

1. As a happily single and childfree woman, how does this tax cut help me?

I'm not getting the $1,000 child tax credit, and I see that they are increasing the singles tax penalty to benefit the Repuke married middle class.

[leftyandproud]

2. you will benefit via the lower rates..

but the COUNTRY will be hurt...If you care about your country, you will give up your damn 5% tax reduction...thats what I say to every repub.

[leftyandproud]

3. ..