Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s hopeful the Finance Committee he chairs will approve legislation today (Tuesday) that would keep a series of 78-billion dollars in tax reductions intact.
Grassley says some of the tax policy will “sunset” at the end of this year, meaning, it will expire without Congressional action. Grassley is very explicit in saying they are -not- cutting taxes. Grassley says “If we don’t continue the existing tax policy, we’re going to have five-million middle-income Americans paying the alternative minimum tax and it was never intended to hit anybody but the very wealthy in America.”
Grassley had hoped to get the tax policy updates out of his committee last week, but disagreement among his fellow Republicans postponed the debate. Part of the problem, Grassley says, is that some are referring to their actions as tax cuts. Grassley says “Anybody that says we’re cutting taxes from people that would otherwise be paying taxes that aren’t supposed to pay taxes is being intellectually dishonest. What we’re trying to do is keep the existing tax policy in place.”
A long list of tax cuts are due to expire at the end of this year and at the end of 2006, but the list reportedly does not include reduced rates on capital gains and dividends. Those cuts are a top priority for several Republicans on the panel.