–House Passes $1.5 Trillion Tax Cut Bill On Partisan Vote
–House Majority Leader Says Bill Will Be ‘Vehicle’ For Final Deal
–Rep. Hoyer: ‘I Don’t Think This Is A Final Package’
–Rep. Cantor: Accuses Dems of ‘Staging Meaningless Votes’
–Rep Camp: Tax Bill Is ‘As Misguided As It Is Futile’

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – The House Thursday approved a $1.5 trillion tax
cut package that extends the middle class portions of the Bush era tax
cuts and includes an adjustment to the alternative minimum tax.

The House vote was 234 to 188.

The vote was mostly partisan. All Democrats but 20 voted for the
bill. All Republicans opposed the measure except for three.

Democratic leaders said the vote was held to focus the tax cut
issue and show where each party stands on the issue of extending
the Bush era tax cuts.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the bill will serve as “the
vehicle” that will be sent to the Senate for the final tax cut
agreement.

“I don’t think this is the final package,” Hoyer said before the
vote.

Republican leaders said the vote was little more than a political
stunt from a party that was hammered in the mid-term elections.

The House bill would make permanent the tax cuts on income under
$200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for married couples.

It would also include lower tax rates for capital gains and
dividends and eliminate the marriage penalty and expand the child
credit. The package would extend through 2011 an expired adjustment to
the AMT that shields thousands of taxpayers from the AMT.

Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated the package
would cost $1.5 trillion over a decade, with $1.3 trillion due to the
extension of the middle class tax cuts.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi again blasted Republicans for pushing
for a full extension of the Bush tax cuts, a measure that would cost $4
trillion over a decade, while insisting that an $18 billion package of
unemployment benefits be fully offset.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin said the bill
is designed to help middle income people struggling in a weak economy.

“This isn’t about politics … . It’s about people,” Levin said.

Rep. Dave Camp, the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means panel,
said the Democratic vote was as “misguided as it is futile.”

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor accused Democrats of “staging
meaningless votes that amount to political chicanery.”

Earlier in the day, House Republican leader John Boehner blasted
House Democrats for scheduling the vote on the middle class portion of
the Bush era tax cuts as “chicken crap.”

Boehner said the House Democratic vote is little more than a
political “maneuver.”

“This is nonsense,” he said.

Boehner said the focus should be on the tax cut negotiations that
have just begun between Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, White House
budget director Jack Lew and four congressional negotiators: Democratic
senator Max Baucus, Republican senator Jon Kyl, Democratic congressman
Chris Van Hollen and Republican congressman Dave Camp.

Boehner called for a quick agreement to extend all of the Bush era
tax cuts.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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