"This straightforward proposal clearly demonstrates that we can extend important tax relief to working families in a fiscally responsible manner," Snowe said in a statement yesterday.
GOP leaders are expected to unveil a compromise package today or Wednesday.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley was asked by the president to get the tax cuts passed.
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Liberal advocacy groups have decried the tax cut push as a cynical distortion of an effort to help poor families. When Congress passed a 10-year, $350 billion tax cut last year, lawmakers sped up income tax cuts and an expanded child tax credit for middle- and upper-income families, but neglected to accelerate an expansion of tax refunds for poor families.
The political fallout from that decision led the Senate and House to pass competing versions of a broader tax refund for poor families with children. The Senate's plan would have provided $1.8 billion in tax rebates, with the cost offset by customs fees. For more than a year, congressional leaders have made no effort to reconcile those bills -- until now.
"In this manner, a bill to benefit low-income working families without enlarging the deficit [will] be turned into a bill primarily to benefit other families, including high-income families, and to add substantially to the deficit," the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities stated last week.
But congressional Democratic leaders have signaled they have no intention of blocking an extension. If nothing is done, the $1,000 child credit would shrink to $700. Most married couples would see their standard deduction shrink. Changes in the tax brackets would increase the bill for some of the lowest-income taxpayers.
Even the Senate Republicans who would like to see the cost of the package "paid for" would not say they will vote against it if it does expand the deficit.
For Bush, the priority is simply to get something done before Congress leaves. Grassley had said the extensions could wait until September, but the president summoned the Finance Committee chairman to the White House on July 9 to demand action this week. White House officials reason that partisan politics will derail any substantive legislation during Congress's brief fall session.
"The president calls for the Congress to act on this in virtually every speech he gives," said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan. "It is a high priority for the president."
Democrats suspect another motive: a presidential bill-signing ceremony, possibly during the Democratic convention next week.
"The president is hurting so badly right now, and even congressional Republicans, this is the one thing they can say they've gotten for the middle class," said Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Calif.). "I guess on the nightly news, you could have a situation where you have Democrats all excited in Boston, and meanwhile back in the White House, the president just signed a bill giving middle-class tax relief."
