Thanks for your editorial a few weeks back on the machinations between the House and Senate on the Bush budget and “stimulus” tax cuts.

Not suprisingly, the pressures to get tax cuts higher than the $350 billion the Senate approved continue. Sen. Snowe’s role on the Senate Finance Committee and every vote in the Senate remain critical.

We learned last week that Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Grassley will delay releasing his chairman’s “mark” of the stimulus bill, hoping to get agreement to get some of the president’s dividend exclusion proposal into the bill, while leaving state fiscal relief out – and sending fiscal relief to the Senate floor separately, where it would have a hard time given Sen. Snowe’s and other’s insistence that the total deficit-causing effects of the package not go over $350 billion.

Sending a necessary piece separately is just another gimmick.

We gather that the present discussion also proposes to accelerate the 2006 top rate cuts but not the increases in the refundable child credit. Once again it appears that benefits to a very small minority of taxpayers is getting preference over something that would benefit a majority of households, in a manner that the Congressional Budget Office, Economy.com and many others have found unlikely to provide much economic stimulus but only long-term deficits.

Sens. Snowe and Collins’ statements in favor of meaningful state fiscal relief, extended unemployment benefits and some constraint against future deficits will be tested in the coming days.

Christopher St.John,

Gardiner


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.