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American Morning
House Today Expected to Pass $550 Billion Tax Cut Plan
Aired May 09, 2003 - 07:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Capitol Hill quickly, where the House today is expected to pass a $550 billion tax cut plan, much larger than the version OKed by the Senate, a Senate committee, anyway, last night.
Kate Snow live in Washington with a preview for here -- and, Kate, wondering about the White House, whether or not it's going to get what it truly wants there ultimately.
Probably not.
KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, probably not.
HEMMER: But at this point where do we stand?
Good morning.
SNOW: Good morning, Bill.
Probably not is a good answer. And, in fact, the House today expected to go ahead and pass this bill. It is close to what the president wanted, but it doesn't contain that thing that he keeps talking about, the elimination of what he calls the double taxation of dividends that shareholders get from counties. The president's been pushing hard for that. The House doesn't go all the way toward eliminating that, but it goes a great deal of distance and they're going to have a much easier time in the House today passing this bill than they're going to have in the Senate next week.
Bill, the Senate Finance Committee has made a deal with moderates over in the Senate, saying that basically they will give a bigger tax cut than they had originally supported but not as big as what the president wanted. It's a big mess over there in the Senate because moderates are really worried about the deficit. They say if we spend this much money, we might be in the hole, really in the red for the U.S. government, and that's a bad idea. You're going to hear a lot of Democrats saying that today, too, on the House floor.
One of the sticking points over in the Senate will be how do you pay for all of this? If you're going to do tax cuts, senators like Olympia Snow want to make sure it's paid for. Expect that debate next week -- Bill.
HEMMER: Kate, if you're following this, sometimes you need a degree in economics to follow all these plans. If we can cut through it, what do these packages mean or the most probable package mean for the average American? SNOW: A couple of key things that are in both the packages that we think are going to come out of the House, and probably out of the Senate, ultimately. One big thing, individual tax cuts. Remember, everybody got a tax break back in 2001. A lot of people, though, were watching those phase-in, for most Americans, those phased in through 2006. Well, this bill would jump it up so that you get those tax cuts sooner, by 2003.
Also, 27 million families who make under $130,000 a year, they would get a child tax credit increase. They would get a check in the mail this summer, Bill, for about $400 per child, depending on your income level. But that's a pretty big break. Also, small business tax breaks are in both of these bills, the Senate and the House. And finally dividend and capital gains tax cuts. The capital gains portion is only in the House version, the version that comes up today.
But those two cuts, advocates of them say, Republicans say that would help the whole economy, because it would help the stock market, it would help businesses borrow money, grow their companies. The opponents say it's a boon to the wealthy, it's only going to help people who get dividends, which tend to be wealthier, older Americans -- Bill.
HEMMER: It seems like the biggest story on the Hill today.
Thanks, Kate.
Kate Snow live in Washington.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 9, 2003 - 07:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Capitol Hill quickly, where the House today is expected to pass a $550 billion tax cut plan, much larger than the version OKed by the Senate, a Senate committee, anyway, last night.
Kate Snow live in Washington with a preview for here -- and, Kate, wondering about the White House, whether or not it's going to get what it truly wants there ultimately.
Probably not.
KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, probably not.
HEMMER: But at this point where do we stand?
Good morning.
SNOW: Good morning, Bill.
Probably not is a good answer. And, in fact, the House today expected to go ahead and pass this bill. It is close to what the president wanted, but it doesn't contain that thing that he keeps talking about, the elimination of what he calls the double taxation of dividends that shareholders get from counties. The president's been pushing hard for that. The House doesn't go all the way toward eliminating that, but it goes a great deal of distance and they're going to have a much easier time in the House today passing this bill than they're going to have in the Senate next week.
Bill, the Senate Finance Committee has made a deal with moderates over in the Senate, saying that basically they will give a bigger tax cut than they had originally supported but not as big as what the president wanted. It's a big mess over there in the Senate because moderates are really worried about the deficit. They say if we spend this much money, we might be in the hole, really in the red for the U.S. government, and that's a bad idea. You're going to hear a lot of Democrats saying that today, too, on the House floor.
One of the sticking points over in the Senate will be how do you pay for all of this? If you're going to do tax cuts, senators like Olympia Snow want to make sure it's paid for. Expect that debate next week -- Bill.
HEMMER: Kate, if you're following this, sometimes you need a degree in economics to follow all these plans. If we can cut through it, what do these packages mean or the most probable package mean for the average American? SNOW: A couple of key things that are in both the packages that we think are going to come out of the House, and probably out of the Senate, ultimately. One big thing, individual tax cuts. Remember, everybody got a tax break back in 2001. A lot of people, though, were watching those phase-in, for most Americans, those phased in through 2006. Well, this bill would jump it up so that you get those tax cuts sooner, by 2003.
Also, 27 million families who make under $130,000 a year, they would get a child tax credit increase. They would get a check in the mail this summer, Bill, for about $400 per child, depending on your income level. But that's a pretty big break. Also, small business tax breaks are in both of these bills, the Senate and the House. And finally dividend and capital gains tax cuts. The capital gains portion is only in the House version, the version that comes up today.
But those two cuts, advocates of them say, Republicans say that would help the whole economy, because it would help the stock market, it would help businesses borrow money, grow their companies. The opponents say it's a boon to the wealthy, it's only going to help people who get dividends, which tend to be wealthier, older Americans -- Bill.
HEMMER: It seems like the biggest story on the Hill today.
Thanks, Kate.
Kate Snow live in Washington.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
