Lost Cause
It's a wrap!
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2001
- Posts
- 30,949
How much is too much?! These fucking bastards aren't going to happy until the only thing we can afford, is to go to work to pay their taxes! Let's get these sonsabitches out of office this year! It's hard enough out there without these mini-dictators getting in our way!
DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans pushed legislation through the House on Thursday granting permanent tax relief to married couples, overriding Democratic complaints they were draining Social Security trust funds to gain election-year advantage.
The 271-142 vote sent the bill to the Senate, where Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. expressed little enthusiasm for scheduling a debate on the issue.
The GOP-crafted legislation was the latest in a string of campaign-season measures designed to keep last year's tax cuts from expiring a decade hence. "We don't want to have a $42 billion annual tax increase that goes into effect Jan. 1, 2011, because people are married," said Rep. Roy Blunt , R-Mo.
But Rep. Steny Hoyer ,D-Md., said the bill was part of a "fiscal irresponsibility rampage" by Republicans, coming on the heels of an effort to make estate tax repeal permanent.
"An election-year ploy," snapped Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas — although 60 Democratic defectors voted for the measure in a testament to its political appeal.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill hailed the House, saying it had voted "to prevent a tax hike on hardworking married couples."
He urged the Senate to follow suit, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison ,R-Texas, said she would press for action.
But Daschle, fresh from engineering Wednesday's defeat of the estate tax repeal, showed scant enthusiasm for another tax-cut battle. "With all the work we've got to do, I think it would be difficult to anticipate another tax debate along the lines of what the House is proposing. ... My sense is that we've been there and done that," he told reporters.
It was the second day in a row that congressional Republicans used debates in the Capitol to criticize Democrats on tax-cutting issues.
The Senate refused Wednesday to make the estate tax repeal permanent, bottling the bill up on a vote of 54-44, six short of the 60 needed for approval.
The measure on the House floor was part of a GOP plan to advance permanent tax relief on the installment plan in the weeks leading up to the fall campaign.
Because of Senate rules, the tax-cut legislation that President Bush pushed through Congress last year was drafted to expire on Dec. 31, 2010. Barring further action by Congress by 2011, some taxes would rise to their prior levels and some forms of relief would fade.
Bush asked Congress earlier this year to make all of last year's tax relief permanent, but Daschle has refused to schedule a vote on a House-passed bill to accomplish that.
In response, House Republicans have begun passing a series of bills to make portions of last year's measure permanent.
Thus far, bills have cleared the House making permanent the estate tax repeal, an adoption tax credit and tax-free treatment for Holocaust restitution. Debate is expected this summer on a measure to make permanent certain breaks for retirement accounts, and possibly other bills, as well.
Aware they are voting on politically appealing legislation, Democrats in the House and Senate have fashioned a series of alternatives designed to show they support tax relief at the same time they showcase support for Social Security and Medicare.
Under the legislation that House Republicans pushed, tax relief targeted to married couples beginning in 2005 would be extended permanently.
Couples who do not itemize their tax returns would receive the same deduction as two single people. Other changes in the tax brackets would benefit all married couples, and additionally, eligibility for a low-income tax credit would be liberalized.
In all, Rep. Jerry Weller , R-Ill., said 36 million couples would benefit if the so-called "marriage penalty" tax relief were made permanent, at a savings of $42 billion annually.
Without passage of the measure, added Rep. J.D. Hayworth , R-Ariz., "We will be in essence putting a tax back on the backs of" working couples in 2011, at an average of $1400 a year.
Democrats took turns lambasting Republicans. Rep. Robert Matsui , D-Calif., said the bill would cost $460 billion for the first decade it was in effect. "We're going to break the bank for senior citizens when it comes to retirement benefits that they expect to get" he said.
"When are you going to be honest with people that you have to pay for stuff?" asked Rep. Jim McDermott , D-Wash., looking across the House chamber to the Republican side of the aisle. "When are you going to be honest?
In all, 210 Republicans joined one independent and 60 democrats in favor of the bill. There were 141 Democrats and one independent opposed.
A Democratic alternative, making permanent repeal conditional on the financial shape of Social Security trust funds, was rejected on a nearly party-line vote.
DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans pushed legislation through the House on Thursday granting permanent tax relief to married couples, overriding Democratic complaints they were draining Social Security trust funds to gain election-year advantage.
The 271-142 vote sent the bill to the Senate, where Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. expressed little enthusiasm for scheduling a debate on the issue.
The GOP-crafted legislation was the latest in a string of campaign-season measures designed to keep last year's tax cuts from expiring a decade hence. "We don't want to have a $42 billion annual tax increase that goes into effect Jan. 1, 2011, because people are married," said Rep. Roy Blunt , R-Mo.
But Rep. Steny Hoyer ,D-Md., said the bill was part of a "fiscal irresponsibility rampage" by Republicans, coming on the heels of an effort to make estate tax repeal permanent.
"An election-year ploy," snapped Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas — although 60 Democratic defectors voted for the measure in a testament to its political appeal.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill hailed the House, saying it had voted "to prevent a tax hike on hardworking married couples."
He urged the Senate to follow suit, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison ,R-Texas, said she would press for action.
But Daschle, fresh from engineering Wednesday's defeat of the estate tax repeal, showed scant enthusiasm for another tax-cut battle. "With all the work we've got to do, I think it would be difficult to anticipate another tax debate along the lines of what the House is proposing. ... My sense is that we've been there and done that," he told reporters.
It was the second day in a row that congressional Republicans used debates in the Capitol to criticize Democrats on tax-cutting issues.
The Senate refused Wednesday to make the estate tax repeal permanent, bottling the bill up on a vote of 54-44, six short of the 60 needed for approval.
The measure on the House floor was part of a GOP plan to advance permanent tax relief on the installment plan in the weeks leading up to the fall campaign.
Because of Senate rules, the tax-cut legislation that President Bush pushed through Congress last year was drafted to expire on Dec. 31, 2010. Barring further action by Congress by 2011, some taxes would rise to their prior levels and some forms of relief would fade.
Bush asked Congress earlier this year to make all of last year's tax relief permanent, but Daschle has refused to schedule a vote on a House-passed bill to accomplish that.
In response, House Republicans have begun passing a series of bills to make portions of last year's measure permanent.
Thus far, bills have cleared the House making permanent the estate tax repeal, an adoption tax credit and tax-free treatment for Holocaust restitution. Debate is expected this summer on a measure to make permanent certain breaks for retirement accounts, and possibly other bills, as well.
Aware they are voting on politically appealing legislation, Democrats in the House and Senate have fashioned a series of alternatives designed to show they support tax relief at the same time they showcase support for Social Security and Medicare.
Under the legislation that House Republicans pushed, tax relief targeted to married couples beginning in 2005 would be extended permanently.
Couples who do not itemize their tax returns would receive the same deduction as two single people. Other changes in the tax brackets would benefit all married couples, and additionally, eligibility for a low-income tax credit would be liberalized.
In all, Rep. Jerry Weller , R-Ill., said 36 million couples would benefit if the so-called "marriage penalty" tax relief were made permanent, at a savings of $42 billion annually.
Without passage of the measure, added Rep. J.D. Hayworth , R-Ariz., "We will be in essence putting a tax back on the backs of" working couples in 2011, at an average of $1400 a year.
Democrats took turns lambasting Republicans. Rep. Robert Matsui , D-Calif., said the bill would cost $460 billion for the first decade it was in effect. "We're going to break the bank for senior citizens when it comes to retirement benefits that they expect to get" he said.
"When are you going to be honest with people that you have to pay for stuff?" asked Rep. Jim McDermott , D-Wash., looking across the House chamber to the Republican side of the aisle. "When are you going to be honest?
In all, 210 Republicans joined one independent and 60 democrats in favor of the bill. There were 141 Democrats and one independent opposed.
A Democratic alternative, making permanent repeal conditional on the financial shape of Social Security trust funds, was rejected on a nearly party-line vote.
