CQ
Published: 07-02-08
Senate GOP leaders on Tuesday urged their Democratic counterparts to work on a bipartisan tax package this month that would revive or renew a slew of individual and business tax breaks.
All of the tax provisions enjoy broad bipartisan support but they have stalled in Congress because of the insistence of Democrats primarily in the House that their costs should be offset by revenue raisers elsewhere.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell R-Ky. and Finance Committee ranking Republican Charles E. Grassley of Iowa wrote to Majority Leader Harry Reid D-Nev. and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus D-Mont. Tuesday calling for bipartisan talks on a bill to extend expiring tax breaks before the August recess along with a new “patch” to prevent the alternative minimum tax from hitting millions more Americans.
They said such a package should move without accompanying tax increases.
“We are dismayed that so little attention has been paid to the real damage that is being caused to our economy due to the fact that the research and experimentation tax credit the college tuition deduction and a host of other important individual and business tax provisions have already expired” McConnell and Grassley wrote. “And we have warned again and again about the tremendous uncertainty we are creating for American families as a result of the already-expired AMT patch.”
The Republicans noted that Congress just cleared a supplemental war spending bill that created an expensive new veterans’ education benefit and extended unemployment benefits for 13 weeks both without any offsets for the mandatory entitlement spending.
“We believe simple extensions of existing tax policies should not be held hostage to the demand by some for ever-greater tax collections” they said.
