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Thursday, March 09, 2006
Senate Budget Mark -- No Tax Reconciliation Instructions
Senate Budget Committee Chair Judd Gregg (R-NH) unvelied the 2007 budget resolution mark yesterday. Notably it did not contain any reconciliation instructions for tax cuts, which may get in the way of efforts to cut taxes outside of the left-over tax reconciliation bill from last year that Congress is still negotiating. Additionally, it drops Bush's proposal for Medicare cuts and health savings accounts.
The mark sets discretionary spending at $873 billion for FY 2007, and does include revenue reductions. According to the committee summary "[the bill] assumes a modest reduction in revenues, relative to the baseline, that balances the need for fiscal responsibility with the need to continue modest tax rates necessary to continue economic growth and job creation."
House and Senate negotiators are still trying to work out the details of the 2005 tax reconciliation bill, which calls for $70 billion in tax cuts that are protected from filibuster. The summary of the mark states, "Since the Tax Relief Act of 2005 (pursuant to the reconciliation instruction in the FY 2006 budget resolution) has not yet been enacted, the tax relief assumed in the Mark is sufficient to accommodate extensions of current capital gains and dividend tax rates and existing provisions for small business expensing through the five year budget window."
The House Budget Committee was supposed to hold its markup session this week, but has postponed it to a date yet to be determined. April 15 is the internal budget resolution deadline used by Congress, but they often fail to complete it by that date.
Posted by Becky Lewis
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