Heros of the New State Protect And Fight Against Enemies

[Guest guest]

Heros of the New State protect our beloved level ones and fight

against enemy subvesives who act on behalf of level threes.

 

The Commander and his loyals once again have stopped subversives who

are once again trying to hurt our new state and it's most respected

citizens.

 

Remember:

 

" More is less "

 

" Inequality is equality "

 

" Freedom is servitude "

 

" War is peace "

 

" Protect a level one with your life, they are most important "

 

 

Big Brother,

 

On behalf of the Commander and the New State

 

 

 

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43278-2004Sep22.html

 

Bid to Save Tax Refunds for the Poor Is Blocked

 

By Jonathan Weisman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, September 23, 2004; Page A04

 

Congressional negotiators beat back efforts yesterday to expand and

preserve tax refunds for poor families, even as they added $13 billion

in corporate tax breaks to a package of middle-class tax cuts that

could come to a vote in the Senate today.

 

The House-Senate negotiations concluded last night with the approval

of a five-year $146 billion tax cut, the fourth tax cut in as many

years. By the end of this week, Republican leaders expect to pass

extensions of three tax cuts primarily aimed at middle-income

taxpayers -- a $1,000-per-child tax credit, tax breaks for married

couples and a 10 percent income-tax bracket that was expanded last year.

 

But the fight over the child tax refunds during the negotiations

revealed a split among GOP tax writers.

 

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) sided

with Democratic leaders in pushing for changes in the child tax credit

to ensure that millions of poor families would not see their credits

shrink or disappear next year.

 

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and House Ways and Means

Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) opposed the move, as did Sens. Don

Nickles (R-Okla.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.). That effectively scuttled

changes to existing law.

 

The dust-up centers on an obscure provision in the 10-year, $1.35

trillion tax cut that Congress passed in 2001. That tax cut expanded

the $500-per-child tax credit to $1,000, but it also made another

child credit available as a tax refund to some poor families who pay

little or no federal income taxes.

 

Such families were allowed to claim a child credit worth as much as 10

percent of their earnings over $10,000. But the 2001 law stipulated

that the $10,000 threshold would rise with inflation, effectively

slicing into or eliminating refunds for families whose income does not

keep up with inflation. The threshold now stands at $10,750.

 

Because incomes at the bottom end of the workforce have largely

stagnated, the rising threshold has had a significant impact, said

Leonard E. Burman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. Of the 11

million families claiming the child tax refund, more than 4 million --

with 9.2 million children -- will see their credit shrink or disappear

in 2005, Burman estimated.

 

Grassley and the Democrats argued that the tax package under

consideration is designed to ensure that middle-class families do not

see a tax increase next year. So, they asked, why should poor families?

 

" It's a symbolic point, " said Christina Smith FitzPatrick, a senior

policy analyst at the Women's Law Center. " You're making everybody

better off except these people at the very bottom. "

 

Grassley backed an amendment by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) that

would have severed the link to inflation and set the threshold back to

$10,000, at a cost to the Treasury of $4.3 billion over five years.

 

" I am continually astounded that some members of Congress don't

understand how challenging it is to raise a family in today's

economy, " Lincoln protested. " While the cost of everything from milk

to laundry detergent continues to rise, tax relief for low-income

working families decreases. "

 

But other Republicans balked, arguing that the government already

helps working poor families with the earned-income tax credit and

other tax rebates.

 

Nickles told negotiators that the largest tax refund program -- the

earned-income tax credit -- is already riddled with abuse and mistaken

payments, and that he did not wish to expand another tax refund

program until those problems have been sufficiently addressed. House

leaders have long argued that tax cuts are meant to be relief for

taxpayers, not added welfare payments for those who do not pay income

taxes.

 

Instead, they focused on a package of 20 expiring business taxes worth

$13 billion, including a research and experimentation tax credit worth

$7.6 billion through 2014, a $700 million tax credit for hiring

welfare recipients, and smaller breaks to help Caribbean distillers,

clean-fuel vehicle manufacturers, environmental remediation and wind

energy, among others.

 

 

© 2004 The Washington Post Company