NYT: House Approves $140 Billion in (business) Tax Breaks

[DeepModem Mom]

House Approves $140 Billion in Tax Breaks
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: June 18, 2004


WASHINGTON, June 17 - The House passed legislation on Thursday that would overhaul the corporate tax code and resolve a long-running trade dispute between the United States and Europe while offering $140 billion in tax breaks that affect almost every corner of industry.

The vote of 251 to 178 came one month after the Senate passed a similar bill, and ended an impasse between feuding interest groups that had dragged on for months.

But while Republicans said the measure would help create jobs and provide a much-needed overhaul of international corporate taxes, Democrats denounced it as a giveaway to special interests that would encourage companies to export jobs overseas....

***

....both (the House and Senate) bills include scores of special-interest tax breaks, from $30 billion in tax reductions on foreign corporate profits to dozens of tax breaks for timber companies, oil and gas drillers, movie studios and wine distributors and manufacturers of bows and arrows....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/18/business/18tax.html


ON EDIT: See reply #1 for added page-one Washington Post article about the bill and its significance.

[DeepModem Mom]

1. Adding page-one Wash. Post article on bill's significance --

House Passes Major Tax Cut For Businesses

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 18, 2004; Page A01

The House voted 251 to 178 yesterday to replace an export subsidy with a major tax cut for domestic manufacturers and multinational corporations, setting up difficult negotiations with the Senate on one of the most significant corporate tax bills in 20 years.

Passing a corporate tax measure has become imperative. Since the World Trade Organization ruled existing export subsidies illegal, retaliatory sanctions by the European Union have tacked 8 percent onto the price of a variety of U.S. exports, from leather and jewelry to timber and thoroughbreds. The penalty will rise by 1 percentage point a month until the subsidy is lifted.

But the push to repeal a $5 billion-a-year subsidy has allowed lobbyists and lawmakers to dust off tax favors that have languished for years. The centerpiece of both the House bill and the Senate's version would cut the top tax rate for domestic manufacturers from 35 percent to 32 percent, but other provisions have pushed the final House bill to 496 pages and the Senate-passed bill to 930.

The margin of passage was far wider than the House bill's authors expected. Some Republicans had complained that the bill is riddled with special-interest provisions that would further complicate the tax code, send jobs overseas and worsen a federal deficit already at record highs....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50676-2004Jun17.html

[LittleApple81]

2. Is there going to be anything left by the time reason and honesty

come back to government? What surprises me is how many democrats are voting for this crap.

[dusty64]

3. Another HUGE corporate welfare

giveaway, where the fuck is the outrage. Even breaks for offshore companies and rapists of the Earth. If this were the real world, these corporate theocratic whores would be tarred and feathered.

[salin]

4. Great - more of the money we pay into Social Security will be

drained to pay for these tax cuts (to try to minimze the GIGANTIC deficits).

Looks like the GOP really intends to drive the Government into bankruptcy.

[Terry_M]

5. And 48 Democrats

Were just as easily bribed as the rest of congress... Useless politicians.