Bush Signs $136B Corporate Tax Cut Bill oink

Bush Signs $136B Corporate Tax Cut Bill

Oct 22, 4:39 PM (ET)
By PETE YOST

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush showered $136 billion in new tax
breaks on businesses, farmers and other groups Friday, quietly signing
the most sweeping rewrite of corporate tax law in nearly two decades.

Announcing the action without fanfare aboard Air Force One, the White
House said the new law is good for America's workers because it will
help create jobs here at home.

The election-year measure is intended to end a bitter trade war with
Europe and supporters said it provides critical assistance to
beleaguered manufacturers who have suffered 2.7 million lost jobs over
the past four years.

The legislation also includes about $10 billion in assistance for
tobacco farmers. A Senate provision that would have coupled the
assistance with regulation of tobacco by the Food and Drug
Administration was dropped by the conference committee that ironed out
differences between the two chambers.

Though the legislation provides new tax breaks, Congress' Joint
Committee on Taxation says it has no impact on the deficit because it
also closes corporate tax loopholes and repeals export subsidies.

Opponents disagree, saying it will swell the nation's huge budget
deficit with a massive giveaway that will reward multinational
companies that move jobs overseas and add to the complexity of the tax
system.

The centerpiece of the tax legislation is $76.5 billion in new tax
relief for the battered manufacturing sector, which has lost 2.7
million jobs over the past four years. Manufacturing in the law is
broadly defined to include not just factories but also oil and gas
producers, engineering, construction and architectural firms and large
farming operations.

John Kerry's presidential campaign says the assertion that the new law
is revenue-neutral is bogus because many of the tax breaks in the new
law are for only one or two years and likely will be extended by
Congress, while revenue-saving offsets are for 10 years.

The law will "shut down corporate tax abuses - without increasing the
federal deficit," insisted House Ways and Means Committee chairman Bill
Thomas, R-Calif.

There was no signing ceremony.

"This legislation will end the European sanctions on American exports,
and it will help promote the competitiveness of American manufacturers
and other job creators, and help create jobs here in America," White
House spokesman Scott McClellan said on the campaign trail in
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Kerry missed the vote on the corporate tax breaks. Kerry spokesman Phil
Singer said that "in his first budget, John Kerry will call for the
repeal of all the unwarranted international tax breaks that George Bush
included in this bill."

The handling of the corporate tax bill stood in contrast with Bush's
action on Oct. 4 when he sat before television cameras on a stage in
Des Moines, Iowa, to sign three tax-cut breaks popular with
middle-class voters and revive other tax incentives for businesses.

The original purpose for the legislation was to repeal a $5 billion
annual tax break provided to American exporters that was ruled illegal
by the Geneva-based World Trade Organization. Repeal of the tax break
was needed to lift retaliatory tariffs on more than 1,600 American
manufactured products and farm goods exported to Europe.

The tariffs now stand at 12 percent and are rising by 1 percentage
point a month.

The measure is the most sweeping overhaul of corporate tax law since
1986. It replaces the $49.2 billion export tax break with $136 billion
in new tax breaks for a wide array of groups from farmers, fishermen
and bow and arrow hunters to some of America's largest corporations.
Among the beneficiaries: native Alaskan whalers, importers of Chinese
ceiling fans and NASCAR race track owners.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041022/D85SMVUO0.html
this is a bush-photo-freezone. Only botanical shrubs and other natural
wonders are allowed.
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107,....
full disclaimer http://www.duckdaotsu.org/fairuse.html
http://lists.igc.org/mailman/listinfo/duckdaotsu
a proud mediachannel.org affiliate
International Progressive Publications Network
duck feed at http://duckdaotsu.blogspot.com/atom.xml