Finally it looks like the Congressional Republicans are doing what we elected them to do. Cut taxes. Again.
It’s been well said, and it ought to be said again. If the Republican Party is not for tax cuts, what is it for?
If the Democrats, the party of FDR, are for “bold, persistent experimentation,” then the Republican Party is for “bold, persistent tax cuts.”
Anyway, Andrew Taylor reports in the Washington Post that Republicans are ready to move on stage one of a two stage tax cut plan. Stage One is presumably being run under the reconciliation process and so is filibuster-proof.
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.
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.
Wow. $34 billion for a one year AMT patch. That baby really is starting to bite. The question is: How to make lefty rich trust-fund babies in the blue states to realize just how much of a friend George W. Bush is to them when he cuts their AMT?
Stage Two has some interesting features, obviously designed to be difficult for Democrats to oppose.
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.
It will also include another window to allow people to transfer assets from traditional IRAs into Roth IRAs. Democrats don’t like that because although it give the Feds a one time tax boost it results in less revenue in the long term.
Republicans should give Democrats every opportunity possible to come out against tax cuts. It’s only fair.
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