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<DIV><FONT size=2>Oh, those fiscally responsible Republicans. Are they not
wonderful or not?</FONT></DIV><FONT size=2>
<DIV><BR>Wayne A. Fox<BR>1009 Karen Lane<BR>PO Box 9421<BR>Moscow, ID
83843</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="mailto:waf@moscow.com">waf@moscow.com</A><BR>208
882-7975<BR>_____________________________________</DIV>
<DIV>
<H1>CBO score shows tax plan ups deficit $900 billion in 5 years</H1>
<DIV class=cnn_stryathrtmp>
<DIV class=cnnbyline>From <B>the CNN Wire Staff</B></DIV>
<DIV class=cnn_strytmstmp></DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=cnn_strylftcntnt>
<DIV class=cnn_strylctcntr>
<DIV><B>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</B></DIV>
<UL class="cnn_bulletbin cnnstryhghlght">
<LI><B><B>NEW:</B></B> Loss of revenue will total $756 billion over 5 years
<LI><B>NEW</B>: The extension of unemployment benefits adds less than $57
billion over 5 years
<LI>Former President Clinton calls the tax deal the best possible at this time
<LI>Conservatives say they'll oppose the tax package because it increases the
deficit</LI></UL></DIV></DIV>
<P><B>Washington (CNN)</B> -- The Congressional Budget Office released its score
Friday on the tax plan hammered out between Republicans and President Barack
Obama, showing a $893 billion hit on the deficit over the next five years.</P>
<P>The bulk of the deficit increase comes from loss of revenue -- $756 billion
-- with the rest coming from additional direct outlays.</P>
<P>The 13-month extension of unemployment benefits adds less than $57 billion to
the deficit.</P>
<P>The highest price item is the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, which will
add more than $400 billion to the deficit, followed by the payroll tax holiday
at about $225 billion.</P>
<P>Earlier, Obama enlisted former President Bill Clinton to help sell a
compromise tax package negotiated with Republicans to reluctant Democrats.</P>
<P>After meeting with Clinton at the White House, Obama brought him to the
briefing room to tout the proposal to reporters, even backing off after a brief
introduction to let Clinton do the talking and take questions.</P>
<P>"I personally think this is a good deal, and the best we can get," Clinton
said, arguing that the combination of payroll tax cuts, unemployment insurance
benefits and various tax credits would help the economy grow.</P>
<P>Acknowledging that the Republican insistence on extending tax cuts to the
wealthy would help him personally, Clinton said the compromise meant that both
sides had to accept provisions they disliked.</P>
<P>"There's never a perfect bipartisan bill in the eyes of a partisan," Clinton
said. "I believe this will be a significant net-plus for the country."</P>
<P>It was the latest salvo by the Obama administration in a battle for public
and political support for the plan that combines extended tax cuts from the Bush
era with extended unemployment benefits, tax breaks and the payroll tax holiday
intended to bolster a sluggish recovery from economic recession.</P>
<P>House Democrats declared Thursday they opposed the package because it would
extend the lower Bush-era tax rates for millionaires. They support the stance
Obama has championed for years -- extending the current lower tax rates only for
those earning up to $200,000 a year, or families earning $250,000, while letting
rates for higher incomes return to 1990s levels.</P>
<P>However, Senate Republicans have refused to accept any difference in tax
treatment for the wealthy, demanding that all current rates be extended. With
the tax cuts expiring at the end of the year, and Republicans able to block any
legislation in the Senate, Obama and Democrats face a fast-approaching deadline
to reach a deal or see tax bills increase for everyone.</P>
<P>Earlier Friday, Obama told National Public Radio that the tax and benefits
package would gain congressional approval because "nobody -- Democrat or
Republican -- wants to see people's paychecks smaller on January 1 because
Congress didn't act," Obama said in an interview with National Public Radio.</P>
<P>"And I think that the framework that we've put forward, which says not only
that people's taxes don't go up on January 1, but also that we extend
unemployment insurance for a year, that we make sure that key provisions like
the college tax credit, the child tax credit, the earned-income tax credit are
included -- that that framework is going to serve as the basis for compromise,"
Obama said.</P>
<P>The debate over taxes in the waning days of a lame-duck session of Congress
illustrated the mistrust and animosity that has built up in the deeply partisan
environment on Capitol Hill.</P>
<P>Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-New York, told CNN Friday that the tax plan will need
Republican support to pass so that voters in 2012 will know it was not Democrats
who approved the measure's projected $857 billion cost.</P>
<P>Obama will have to "get more Republicans than Democrats to make it go
through," Ackerman said.</P>
<P>So far, Republicans "haven't said that they're all going to vote for it. They
haven't said how many votes they're going to provide," Ackerman said. "This is
on our (Democrats') watch. Then they're going to attack us in the next election
for increasing the deficit when most of them are going to vote against it. ...
Why should the Democrats get all the blame? The Republicans are very good at
this. ... They get the credit for everything we do. We get the blame for
everything they did that went bad."</P>
<P>Also Friday, conservatives Republicans questioned the tax and benefit
package, warning it went against the campaign mantra from November of holding
down the deficit.</P>
<P>U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, told CNN that the package would
increase the deficit, adding that "investors are reacting to the increases in
the deficit and so we're concerned about that. We want to get on a sound
financial footing."</P>
<P>Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, vowed earlier this week to filibuster the
tax and benefit package to prevent a vote on the Senate floor. He noted that
those who ran from the right in the election had said they would oppose anything
that increased the deficit.</P>
<P>The Senate will consider the tax package first. On Thursday, Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, released the first version of legislation to
implement the negotiated deal and said the first vote on it, a procedural one to
open debate, would occur Monday.</P>
<P>The Senate version made public by Reid was largely the same as the deal
announced by Obama, but it added a one-year extension of a program that provides
cash grants in lieu of a tax credit for construction of new solar and wind
energy projects. The Treasury Grant Program was part of the 2009 economic
stimulus bill.</P>
<P>White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Friday that the
additional clean energy provision added $3 billion to the cost of the package.
Meanwhile, a letter to House Democratic leaders signed by at least 79 Democratic
members called for the provision to be extended for two years.</P>
<P>The negotiated package includes a two-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts set
to expire at the end of the year, as well as 13 months of unemployment benefits
and a cut of 2 percentage points in the payroll tax. In addition, the plan
extends current tax breaks for students and lower-income Americans, and adjusts
the estate tax in a way that Democrats believe benefits the wealthy.</P>
<P>However, Bachmann and other conservatives complained that the compromise
resurrects the estate tax, which had expired for 2010 but was set to be restored
in 2011 at a rate of 55%, with inheritances under $1 million exempted. A bill
that passed in the House set the tax rate at 45% and exempted inheritances under
$3.5 million, while the provision in the tax deal would exempt estates up to $5
million and set the tax rate at 35%.</P>
<P>To Obama, the bottom line is that legislators from both parties will prevent
a tax increase on January 1 by accepting the main components of the negotiated
package, including the extension of unemployment benefits.</P>
<P>"At the end of the day, people are going to conclude we don't want 2 million
people suddenly without unemployment insurance and not able to pay their rent,
not able to pay their mortgage, not able to pay their house note," Obama said,
adding that the package also will bolster the so-far sluggish recovery from a
recession that has unemployment still near 10%.</P>
<P>"I think that people are also going to understand that the single most
important thing we can do for all of our constituencies is to make sure that the
recovery that is taking place right now gets stronger," he said, adding that
economists have noted the negotiated package would increase growth and could
mean more jobs, a development that "has got to be the highest priority for
everybody."</P>
<P>He called for legislators "to act responsibly and to think not in terms of
abstract political fights here ... on Capitol Hill, but to think about those
families that, in the middle of the holiday season, are trying to figure out --
are they still going to have unemployment benefits at the end of this
month?"</P>
<P>"I'm confident that we're going to be able to get this resolved by the end of
the month," Obama said.</P>
<P>Thursday's vote by the House Democratic caucus was a defiant rejection of
both the agreement on tax and benefit measures, as well as what many Democrats
in the chamber perceived as being marginalized in the talks by the White
House.</P>
<P>"This message today is very simple. That in the form that it was negotiated,
it is not acceptable to the House Democratic caucus," said Democratic Rep. Chris
Van Hollen of Maryland, who represented House Democrats in the negotiations. He
pledged to "work with the White House and our Republican colleagues to try and
make sure we do something right for the economy and right for jobs."</P>
<P>During their meeting, caucus members chanted "Just say no," according to two
Democrats in attendance, and Rep. Laura Richardson of California later asked
reporters outside the room: "Did you hear us saying 'Just say no'?"</P>
<P>Overall, Republicans generally appear supportive of the package, which White
House advisers noted gave them their two main priorities -- an extension of the
lower tax rates from the Bush era to everyone, including the wealthiest
Americans, and setting a lower-than-expected estate tax rate only on
inheritances of more than $5 million.</P>
<P>Both provisions angered liberal Democrats, who oppose extending the lower tax
rates enacted in 2001 and 2003 to the wealthy. Some said Obama should have
forced a showdown with Republicans over the tax cut extensions by holding out
longer to force more GOP concessions.</P>
<P>However, Obama and White House aides said the deal reached in negotiations
was the best they would get from unyielding Republicans, who will take control
of the House and enjoy a stronger minority stake in the Senate when the next
session of Congress begins in early January.</P>
<P>Gibbs told reporters Thursday that he expected Congress to pass a package
this year because the alternative was higher taxes for everyone after December
31.</P>
<P>"At the end of the day, members are not going to want to be in their
districts, senators are not going to want to be in their districts, when their
constituents find out their taxes have gone up by several thousands of dollars,"
Gibbs said, noting that the deal is a compromise with elements unpalatable to
both sides. "If everybody took out what they didn't like, we'd have nothing. And
we know the consequences of doing nothing."</P>
<P>A top Democratic adviser to the White House added that Senate Democrats "have
several vehicles they can use" as the legislative base for the tax plan, and are
working on a plan to pass a tax bill and "then jam the House" with that
legislation.</P>
<P>Some House Democrats say they will support the tax package as a compromise
made under tough circumstances.</P>
<P class=cnninline>"If it passes the Senate and this is the compromise the
president of the United States has committed to, what are we going do in the
House, hold this up?" said Rep. Shelley Berkley of
Nevada.</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>