May 23, 2008 02:02 PM | Permalink | 
The White House has indicated that the President would likely veto a bill, recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, that would cut taxes by $54 billion because it includes revenue-raising provisions to offset the costs.
The bill (H.R. 6049) was approved by the House on Wednesday and includes extensions of several temporary tax cuts targeting various interests (commonly referred to as “extenders”) as well as renewable energy tax incentives and a few new tax cuts. Similar bills passed during the Bush years resulted in increases in the federal budget deficit because they did not include revenue-raising provisions.
The one-year “extenders” included in this bill cost a total of $27 billion and include extensions of several tax breaks targeting businesses and generally well-off individuals. The renewable energy tax incentives in this bill cost a total of $17 billion and the largest is the 3-year extension of the “section 45 tax credit” for the production of energy from renewable resources.
The new tax cuts in the bill, which cost an additional $10 billion, include a change in the AMT related to the treatment of stock options, a deduction for property taxes for non-itemizers, and an expansion in eligibility for the Child Tax Credit for low-income families.
Want even more CTJ? Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and Youtube!