Friday, May 12, 2006
Tax cut bill heads to White House

A contentious $70 billion tax-cut package awaits only President Bush's signature after the Senate on Thursday passed the measure 54-44, largely along party lines.

The bill extends tax breaks on capital gains and dividends through 2010 and changes the unpopular alternative minimum tax so that it includes 15 million fewer middle-class taxpayers.

The bill, which includes an extension of Bush's 2003 tax cuts, passed the House on Wednesday. It now needs only presidential approval.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, said that keeping the tax cuts would help the economy and cited 5.3 million new jobs and 18 straight quarters of economic growth since the cuts were first enacted.

"We will keep taxes low so that we can keep this great country of ours strong and growing," he said.

Democrats, however, had the same major gripe they had in 2003 -- that the cuts amounted to a government handout to the wealthy.

Saying the bill "caters to an elite group of wealthy Americans at the expense of the middle class," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said extending the cuts was fiscally irresponsible, especially during an era of high budget deficits.

"I've heard, and I always thought, Republicans were the party of fiscal integrity," Reid said. "This has been blown sky high."
Posted By Greg Botelho, CNN Washington Bureau: 5/12/2006 10:17:00 AM ET | Permalink
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