Dozens of tax breaks designed to help a wide variety of interests — students, teachers, energy companies and lots of others — are due to expire at the end of the year, and most of them have been tacked on to the White House/Republican tax-cut deal to help it get through Congress.
The Senate is scheduled to take its first test vote on the package Monday afternoon, and now that the package has ballooned to include these breaks, it's expected to pass.
Inclusion of the breaks is either traditional Washington capitulation to special interests or vital help for industries and consumers who badly need it, depending on one's point of view.
So. Who's getting the breaks? As McClatchy breaks it down, it looks like the legislation...
...extend[s] the 38 expiring smaller business tax breaks would cost $43.1 billion over two years
...allows renewable energy companies to continue using certain existing tax credits.
...extends dozens of other expiring provisions, usually for a year or two. Among them: help for elementary and secondary school teacher expenses, those who employ people who work on or near Indian reservations, domestic film and television producers, economically depressed areas of Washington, D.C., and areas devastated by 2005's Hurricane Katrina.
...extends a key investment tax credit for a year
...[extends] education breaks:
...allowing employers to offer up to $5,250 in college tuition assistance to employees annually.
...expanding Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, to which lower- and middle-income taxpayers may make up to $2,000 in tax-free annual contributions.
...providing a $2,500 tax credit per student for those who make less than $80,000 a year, or $160,000 for joint filers.
And, finally, it...
...[extends] Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, first enacted in 2004, and a tariff on foreign ethanol producers. The breaks provide refiners, mainly oil companies, with an incentive to blend ethanol with gasoline to ensure market access.
___
Will Nancy Pelosi blink? Probably.
There's been a change in the weather: big, gusty Bill Clinton blew into the White House. NPR says that means politics are about to change. The Hill looks at the change and sees three possible scenarios, at least when it comes to the tax-cut bill.
Scenario No. 1: The Senate passes deal, the House amends the measure and sends it back to the upper chamber, which approves it. Obama signs it into law.
Scenario No. 2: The Senate approves the deal, the House amends it, and gridlock ensues.
Scenario No. 3: Senate passes the deal, House Democrats bend and agree to vote on the legislation, and it is signed into law.
