Budget Would Torpedo Bush's Tax Cuts
WASHINGTON March 14, 2008, 06:12 am ET · The Senate rejected calls from both parties' presidential candidates to take an election-year break from pork-barrel spending as a Democratic-run Congress passed budget plans that would torpedo hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts won by President Bush.
John McCain, the GOP nominee-to-be, couldn't attract even a majority of Senate Republicans to vote with him Thursday night behind the earmark moratorium touted by party conservatives as a way to restore the GOP's credibility with voters.
It failed on a 71-29 vote. Only three Democrats joined with Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in voting for it.
The underlying House and Senate Democratic federal budget plans for 2009, though nonbinding, drew blasts from Republicans for allowing some or all of Bush's tax cuts to die in about three years.
The House passed its $3 trillion budget plan by a 212-207 vote. It would provide generous increases to domestic programs but bring the government's ledger back into the black, but only by letting all of Bush's tax cuts expire at the end of 2010 as scheduled.
The Senate passed a companion plan by a 51-44 vote. It endorsed extending $340 billion of Bush's tax cuts but balked at continuing all of them. The competing versions head to talks in which the House is all but certain to accept the Senate's position endorsing tax cuts for the working poor, married couples, people with children and for those inheriting large estates.
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U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 2nd Session (
| Vote | Date | Issue | Question | Result | Description |
| 00073 | | | | | Motion to Waive C.B.A. Cornyn Amdt. No. 4313; To protect the family budget from runaway Government spending by increasing the number of Senators necessary to waive the PAYGO Point of Order from 60 to 100. |
| 00072 | | | | | Motion to Waive C.B.A. DeMint Amdt. No. 4340; To create a point of order against bills that would raise gasoline prices. |
| 00071 | | | | | Ensign Amdt. No. 4335; To increase funding for the Department of Justice for the vigorous enforcement of a prohibition against taking minors across State lines in circumvention of laws requiring the involvement of parents in abortion decisions consistent with the Child Custody Protection Act, which passed the Senate by a bipartisan vote of 65-34, with an offset. |
| 00070 | | | | | Boxer Amdt. No. 4368 as Modified; To increase funding for the Department of Justice for the vigorous enforcement of laws protecting children. |
| 00069 | | | | | Motion to Table Vitter Amdt. No. 4309; To create a reserve fund to ensure that Federal assistance does not go to sanctuary cities that ignore the immigration laws of the United States and create safe havens for illegal aliens and potential terrorists. |
| 00068 | | | | | Kohl Amdt. No. 4197; To establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund for a 3-year extension of the pilot program for national and State background checks on direct patient access employees of long-term care facilities or providers. |
| 00067 | | | | | Brownback Amdt. No. 4284; To provide funds for a Commission on Budgetary Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies. |
| 00066 | | | | | Allard Amdt. No. 4232; To pay down the Federal debt and eliminate government waste by reducing spending 5 percent on programs rated (as mandated under the Government Performance and Results Act (Public Law 103-62)) ineffective by the Office of Management and Budget Program Assessment Rating Tool. |
| 00065 | | | | | DeMint Amdt. No. 4328; To provide for a deficit-neutral reserve fund for Social Security reform. |
| 00064 | | | | | Sanders Amdt. No. 4218; to put children ahead of millionaires and billionaires by restoring the pre-2001 top income tax rate for people earning over $1 million, and use this revenue to incest in LIHEAP; IDEA; Head Start; Child Care; nutrition; school construction and deficit reduction. |
| 00063 | | | | | Ensign Amdt. No. 4240; To require wealthy Medicare beneficiaries to pay a greater share of their Medicare Part D premiums. |
| 00062 | | | | | Allard Amdt. No. 4246; To raise taxes by an unprecedented $1.4 trillion for the purpose of fully funding 111 new or expanded federal spending programs. |
| 00061 | | | | | Motion to Waive C.B.A. Cornyn Amdt. No. 4242; To protect the family budget by providing for a budget point of order against legislation that increases income taxes on taxpayers, including hard-working middle-income families, entrepreneurs, and college students. |
| 00060 | | | | | Sessions Amdt. No. 4231; To establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund for border security, immigration enforcement, and criminal alien removal programs. |
| 00059 | | | | | Menendez Amdt. No. 4259; To establish a reserve fund for immigration reform and enforcement. |
| 00058 | | | | | Alexander Amdt. No. 4222; To take $670,000 used by the EEOC in bringing actions against employers that require their employees to speak English, and instead use the money to teach English to adults through the Department of Education's English Literacy/Civics Education State Grant program. |
| 00057 | | | | | Kennedy Amdt. No. 4350; To increase funding for the Department of Education's English Literacy-Civics Education State Grant program, with an offset. |
| 00056 | | | | | Alexander Amdt. No. 4207 as Modified; To establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to improve energy efficiency and production. |
| 00055 | | | | | Bill Nelson Amdt. No. 4329; To establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to improve energy efficiency and production. |
| 00054 | | | | | Dorgan Amdt. No. 4198; To increase the Indian Health Service by $1 billion in FY 2009. |
| 00053 | | | | | Specter Amdt. No. 4203; To increase funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. |
| 00052 | | | | | Bunning Amdt. No. 4192 as Modified; To repeal the tax increase on Social Security benefits imposed by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. |
| 00051 | | | | | Conrad Amdt. No. 4204; To add a deficit-neutral reserve fund for repealing the 1993 increase in the income tax on Social Security benefits. |
| 00050 | | | | | Kyl Amdt. No. 4191; To protect small businesses, family ranches and farms from the Death Tax by providing a $5 million exemption, a low rate for smaller estates and a maximum rate no higher than 35%. |
| 00049 | | | | | Salazar Amdt. No. 4196 as Modified; To reform the estate tax to avoid subjecting thousands of families, family businesses, and family farms and ranches to the estate tax. |
| 00048 | | | | | Upon Reconsideration Specter Amdt. No. 4189; To repeal section 13203 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 by restoring the Alternative Minimum Tax rates that had been in effect prior thereto. |
| 00047 | | | | | Motion to Reconsider Amdt. No. 4189; To repeal section 13203 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 by restoring the Alternative Minimum Tax rates that had been in effect prior thereto. |
| 00046 | | | | | Motion to Table Motion to Reconsider; To repeal section 13203 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 by restoring the Alternative Minimum Tax rates that had been in effect prior thereto. |
| 00045 | | | | | Specter Amdt. No. 4189; To repeal section 13203 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 by restoring the Alternative Minimum Tax rates that had been in effect prior thereto. |
| 00044 | | | | | Conrad Amdt. No. 4190; To add a deficit-neutral reserve fund for repealing the 1993 rate increase for the alternative minimum tax for individuals. |
| 00043 | | | | | Graham Amdt. No. 4170 as Modified; To protect families, family farms and small businesses by extending the income tax rate structure, raising the death tax exemption to $5 million and reducing the maximum death tax rate to no more than 35%; to keep education affordable by extending the college tuition deduction; and to protect senior citizens from higher taxes on their retirement income, maintain U.S. financial market competitiveness, and promote economic growth by extending the lower tax rates on dividends and capital gains. |
| 00042 | | | | | Baucus Amdt. No. 4160; To provide tax relief to middle-class families and small businesses, property tax relief to homeowners, relief to those whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and tax relief to America's troops and |
1 comments:
The Baucus proposal allows for the exemption to be adjusted because of inflation, but no percentages or time frames were mentioned.
A lot of family businesses are owned by the wife's family or the wife, and the husband has no wealth of any great amount. Therefore the exemption will apply only to her estate, which means the exemption will be $3,500,000.00 not $7,000,000.00.
It is hard for these situations to do estate planning, unless they know the inflation adjustment rules.
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