Bush Keen To See Tax Cut Extensions Approved By Week’s End

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

21 July 2004

According to a report in the Washington Post, President Bush is urging lawmakers to pass extensions to a series of tax cuts before Congress adjourns for the summer recess at the end of this week.

In a bid to move the tax package quickly, Republican leaders in Congress want to revive failed negotiations on a child tax credit and amend it by tacking on tax cut extensions for married couples, middle class families and low income workers.

As a result, the report stated, the bill would emerge from both chambers of Congress as child tax credit legislation, and therefore offer lawmakers a last chance to approve tax cut extensions before the summer recess.

However, Democrats have accused the Bush administration of attempting to ram through the tax cuts so that the bill can be signed into law by President Bush in a ceremony next week.

Given that the cuts are due to expire at the end of 2004, it may also be the last chance for them to be extended and avoid an effective increase in taxation in 2005.

Nevertheless, some Republicans, including Chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee Charles Grassley, are said to be reluctant to see the tax cuts passed without due consideration of costs, and a cross-party group of Senators is supporting a more modest one-year extension to tax cuts that will be offset by the closing of loopholes and the raising of fees.

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