–House Majority Leader Says House Dems Will Find Votes For Key Bill
–Rep. Hoyer: Sees ‘Significant Success’ In Hill Job Creation Efforts

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday
that the House will pass this week a $192 billion package of tax
extenders and safety net measures.

“We’ll have the votes,” Hoyer said.

The House is expected to vote as early as Wednesday on the nearly
$200 billion package of tax cuts and benefit extensions that was
unveiled last week by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin.

The package would extend about a dozen tax cuts that expired at the
end of last year, expand unemployment benefits, health insurance
subsidies for unemployed workers, and provide Medicaid funds to the
states.

Only about $60 billion of the package would be offset and some of
these offsets are controversial. For example, the package changes the
treatment of carried interest earned by private equity fund managers,
venture capitalists, and real estate investors.

Under the Baucus-Levin plan, instead of being considered as capital
gains, 75% of their carried interest would be treated as ordinary income
for tax purposes. Only the remaining 25% would be taxed as capital
gains.

The package also tries to limit the ability of corporations to use
foreign tax credits.

Republicans have slammed Democrats for pushing a measure that would
increase the deficit by about $134 billion over the next decade,
according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“It’s not a jobs bill. It’s an extension of the failed stimulus
bill,” charged Rep. David Camp, the top Republican on the House Ways and
Means Committee.

More critically for Hoyer, the large block of House Blue Dog
Democrats has been reluctant to back the package because of its deficit
implications.

Hoyer said that Democratic economic policies have enjoyed
“significant success in digging ourselves out of a deep hole.”

He said he is pleased the economy has created more than 500,000
jobs in the first three months of 2010.

“We’ve had to staunch the decline (in jobs) and start building,” he
said.

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

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