| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
House approves new tax-cut packageMeasure includes extension on child tax credit
From Ted Barrett
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Republican-led House approved an $82 billion package of tax cuts Thursday that will boost the child tax credit for millions of families, rich and poor. The bill -- prompted by a political outcry over who benefited from last month's sweeping $350 billion tax cut -- was adopted on a 224-201 vote that generally followed party lines. The move -- once reconciled with a Senate version -- means that low-income families who were left out of the measure President Bush signed in May will get rebate checks. Those $400-per-child checks will go out six to 10 weeks after the law is enacted, sources said. But tough negotiations are likely ahead because the Senate passed a much smaller measure last week -- one focusing solely on the child tax credit for low-income families. The White House, which has not clearly expressed what it wants in a final tax bill, expressed support for both bills. A White House statement released Thursday urged congressional leaders to "quickly resolve their differences." The House measure frustrated Democrats because they fought vigorously to get the increase for low-income families, but they decided to vote against it because it was attached to a more expensive tax relief package that also benefits wealthier families. They also said it increases the budget deficit because it does not have offsets. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, accused House Republican leaders of secretly trying to kill the tax credit by adding expensive provisions they know senators won't support. "It is pretty clear what the intentions of the House leadership [are]," she said. "It is to drive a stake into the heart of the tax credit expansion." House Republican leaders have repeatedly argued that the low-income families in question don't pay income taxes and should not get the additional benefit, which many Republicans compared to welfare. But GOP leaders agreed to add the provision if it brought additional tax cuts with it. The original provision dealing with low-income families was dropped out of last month's major tax bill at the eleventh hour, to keep the bill below an agreed to $350 billion threshold. Under the House bill, those families who earn between $10,500 and $27,000 would get the additional $400-per-child provided in the previous bill to higher income families. The provision costs about $3.5 billion, according to the Republican staff of the House Ways and Means Committee. The House bill also extends a $1,000-per-child tax credit through 2010. It otherwise would have expired in 2005. That provision alone costs $57.3 billion. The other big expense in the bill goes to expanding the child credit to couples who earn $150,000 before the credit begins to phase out. In the previous bill, the threshold was $110,000. The bill also includes tax breaks for members of the military and for the estates of astronauts who die on space missions. Democrats complained some members of the military who earned tax-free combat pay in the last year would not get the full child tax credit because they would not have earned enough money. A GOP aide dismissed the criticism as Democrats "making stuff up" so they could vote against the bill. Democrats also said the bill is written in such a way that low-income families will have to wait until next year to get their checks while higher income families will get their checks in the next month or two. But a spokeswomen at the Treasury Department said the Democrats are wrong and that the department will process the checks within 10 weeks of the law's enactment. Other congressional sources said the checks could be mailed out within six to eight weeks of the law's enactment.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
