Bush Tax Cuts | featured news

$60 Billion: The approximate amount that extending the Bush tax cuts on income above $250,000 a year — which Congress seems on the verge of doing — will cost a year, in inflation-adjusted terms. On average, the affluent households that benefit from these cuts will save $25,000 annually. What else might that $60 billion a year buy?

Republicans in the Senate on Saturday blocked Democratic legislation that would renew low tax rates for individuals' income up to $200,000 and families' income up to $250,000, letting them rise for the wealthiest.

The House of Representatives, in the waning days of Democratic control, passed an extension on Thursday of Bush-era tax cuts for the lower and middle classes in a symbolic vote that would let tax cuts for the wealthiest expire.

Democratic activists Thursday sharply criticized White House officials after a published report indicated that President Obama is likely to back a temporary extension of tax cuts for households with income over $250,000 a year.

Republicans, emboldened by their big mid-term elections wins, are mulling backing a temporary extension of Bush-era tax cuts, which would tee up the issue to use against President Barack Obama in 2012 contests.

President Obama on Wednesday invited Congressional Republican leaders to negotiate about extending the soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts, but he stood his ground by arguing against the Republicans' demand to keep those cuts ...

The Senate will not vote on renewing Bush-era tax cuts before the November 2 elections, a spokesman for the Majority leader said on Thursday, as Democrats face internal divisions and potential Republican obstacles.

Democrats cannot decide whether to hold a vote on extending tax cuts, as some lawmakers fear the issue could hurt their re-election chances in November.

President Obama held his first full-scale White House news conference in three months and the first of the fall campaign season. He announced his promotion of the White House economist, Austan D. Goolsbee, to succeed Christina Romer as chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, and also addressed other issues of the day, including the Middle East peace talks and the debate over extending the Bush tax cuts.

House Republican Leader John Boehner (BAY'-nur) is proposing a two-year freeze on all tax rates and a cut in government spending to the levels of 2008, before the recession hit. In a broadcast interview, the Ohio Republican offered an alternative to ...