Leach may vote against tax bill

Congressman Jim Leach says he may be a no vote on a tax bill that may soon be under consideration in the House. The bill has already cleared the Senate and the House Ways and Means Committee is debating the issue now. Leach says “like all tax bills, this one has a number of very good provisions” but he says there are some “dimensions” of the bill he’s “skeptical of.” Leach, who is a republican, has told G-O-P leaders in the House he’s weighing the bill carefully and hasn’t yet decided how he’ll vote. The bill, as it passed the Senate, extended a tax break for ethanol, which Leach describes as a positive. But Leach says he has doubts if the bill’s tax policies push the federal deficit even higher.Leach says “one can argue, credibly, for any tax cut at any moment in time,” but he says it’s hard to argue for a tax cut if it expands the deficit. Leach says some of the tax changes included in the bill are being made to respond to other countries’ allegations that U-S tax policy violates international trade treaties.