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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Child Credit Castaways
Aired June 02, 2003 - 07:48 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: Critics of the tax cut the president pushed for in Congress are skeptical about claims that it will spark the economy. There are studies suggesting the tax cut will not benefit millions of low-income families, and word over the weekend that possibly they might redo this thing, in part anyway.
Andy Serwer is minding everybody's business, including this one.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Bill.
HEMMER: What gives?
SERWER: Well, there is a real brouhaha, if you'll excuse the expression, about the tax bill now. It came out last week. Of course, there was, first, a study that suggested problems with the child tax credit. Remember, that went from 600 to 1,000. The study suggesting not all families would benefit from that particularly lower income. The White House came back and said, yes, a lot of those people aren't paying taxes anyway. Good point.
Now, a new study over the weekend saying that eight million Americans would receive no benefits from the tax plan at all.
Let's break that down for you a little bit. Five million in the lowest bracket. Those people actually are paying very little taxes, though. They're paying about $600 in taxes. Two-and-a-half million parents with children, those are single, they're paying about $5,200. They're not going to get any benefits. And then another half-a- million families are taxpayers sort of slipping through the cracks.
Now, what's significant here, though, Bill, is that it really has some very interesting political back-and-forthing. It looks like Senator Grassley, the Iowa Republican, is going to go ahead and make some revisions here. He is sort of agreeing with the critics, particularly when it comes to that child tax credit. That's where he's focusing on, making some revisions and increasing those who would benefit from that. House Republicans may not like that, though.
So, instead of seeing a partisan Republican versus Democrat here, you may see Senate Republicans going head-to-head with Senate -- with House Republicans. So, House Republicans versus Senate Republicans on this. It's kind of an unusual situation.
HEMMER: Two quick points here. The study you just pointed out, liberal or conservative? SERWER: Liberal. But, again, Senator Grassley agreeing with some of this criticism. And I think what you've got to use is the word "slap-dash." This bill was done very, very quickly at the 11th hour. They wanted to get it done before Memorial Day, and I think you're seeing a few little problems here.
HEMMER: A quick check of history, how often do they go back and revise things like this when it comes to cutting taxes?
SERWER: Well, not that often, particularly when you've got a situation when majority party is the one that pushes this through, and then they, themselves, are the ones suggesting it needs revision. So, kind of unusual.
HEMMER: More to come. Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: OK.
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 June 2, 2003 - 07:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Critics of the tax cut the president pushed for in Congress are skeptical about claims that it will spark the economy. There are studies suggesting the tax cut will not benefit millions of low-income families, and word over the weekend that possibly they might redo this thing, in part anyway.
Andy Serwer is minding everybody's business, including this one.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Bill.
HEMMER: What gives?
SERWER: Well, there is a real brouhaha, if you'll excuse the expression, about the tax bill now. It came out last week. Of course, there was, first, a study that suggested problems with the child tax credit. Remember, that went from 600 to 1,000. The study suggesting not all families would benefit from that particularly lower income. The White House came back and said, yes, a lot of those people aren't paying taxes anyway. Good point.
Now, a new study over the weekend saying that eight million Americans would receive no benefits from the tax plan at all.
Let's break that down for you a little bit. Five million in the lowest bracket. Those people actually are paying very little taxes, though. They're paying about $600 in taxes. Two-and-a-half million parents with children, those are single, they're paying about $5,200. They're not going to get any benefits. And then another half-a- million families are taxpayers sort of slipping through the cracks.
Now, what's significant here, though, Bill, is that it really has some very interesting political back-and-forthing. It looks like Senator Grassley, the Iowa Republican, is going to go ahead and make some revisions here. He is sort of agreeing with the critics, particularly when it comes to that child tax credit. That's where he's focusing on, making some revisions and increasing those who would benefit from that. House Republicans may not like that, though.
So, instead of seeing a partisan Republican versus Democrat here, you may see Senate Republicans going head-to-head with Senate -- with House Republicans. So, House Republicans versus Senate Republicans on this. It's kind of an unusual situation.
HEMMER: Two quick points here. The study you just pointed out, liberal or conservative? SERWER: Liberal. But, again, Senator Grassley agreeing with some of this criticism. And I think what you've got to use is the word "slap-dash." This bill was done very, very quickly at the 11th hour. They wanted to get it done before Memorial Day, and I think you're seeing a few little problems here.
HEMMER: A quick check of history, how often do they go back and revise things like this when it comes to cutting taxes?
SERWER: Well, not that often, particularly when you've got a situation when majority party is the one that pushes this through, and then they, themselves, are the ones suggesting it needs revision. So, kind of unusual.
HEMMER: More to come. Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
