| Page 2 of 2 < |
Tax Hike On Oil Profits Blocked
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
In a separate vote, the Senate blocked a proposal to extend an array of expiring tax breaks for individuals and businesses, and to protect millions of middle-class taxpayers from the alternative minimum tax, or AMT. The House overwhelmingly approved a similar bill, minus the AMT provision, May 21. Senate leaders tried yesterday to bring the House bill to the Senate floor, where they planned to replace it with their version, but failed on a vote of 50 to 44 to get the 60 votes they needed to proceed.
The failure of the tax package was a disappointment for many companies that have been pressing hard for an extension of the tax incentives for research and development as well as wind and solar energy production.
Senate Republicans generally support extending the tax cuts, many of which have been embedded in the tax code for years. But they balked at Democratic plans to replace about half the lost revenue by delaying a planned tax benefit for multinational corporations and forcing hedge fund managers to pay taxes on their compensation immediately instead of storing it in offshore tax havens.
The bill would not replace revenue lost by preventing the expansion of the AMT, which would cost the treasury about $62 billion next year.
Republican leaders said they were taking a stand against pay-as-you-go budget rules that automatically assume federal spending will increase from year to year but force lawmakers to make up lost revenue through tax increases or spending cuts when tax cuts expire.
"We don't believe philosophically that in order to extend existing tax policy you should use that to raise taxes on others," McConnell said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) vowed to bring his bill back to the Senate floor, saying paying for the tax cuts is "the right thing to do."
