House passes another tax cut bill

Let’s take a moment to review. Congressional Republicans pass a $350 billion tax cut, which disproportionately benefits the wealthy. To help keep the cost down, they take away the child tax credit for the working poor. Democrats complain, the White House agrees to a change, and the Senate passes a revised bill to restore the expanded credit.

So, what do you do if you want to really mess up the process? Turn to Tom DeLay.

Yesterday, House Republicans successfully passed another tax cut bill. Though the measure included $3.5 billion for the child tax credit for the working poor, the cost of the effort is $82 billion. The bill, which Dems initiated as a way to help low-income families, naturally turned into a boon for everyone else. As the New York Times noted today, the House bill “provides 96 percent of its benefits to middle- and upper-income taxpayers.”

Adding insult to injury, the $350 billion tax cut plan included a provision to immediately send $400 checks to millions of middle-income families who qualify for the new child tax credit. Republicans yesterday, however, blocked Democratic efforts to send those same checks to low-income families, even though they’re included in the new bill.

In other words, the new tax plan allows the working poor to get the child credit, but unlike wealthier families, they’ll have to wait a year to enjoy it.

Oh, and before I forget, the Senate version paid for the tax break by extending some customs fees so that the new cut wouldn’t add to the deficit. The House version, meanwhile, intends to simply add $82 billion to what is already the largest deficit in American history.

As for our friends at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, White House officials, who earlier this week expressed support for the Senate version of this initiative, expressed new-found flexibility yesterday, saying the president would sign either version into law.

What’s going to happen when these two go to conference? No one knows. The fact remains, though, that the House’s approach may ultimately doom the entire effort, which may have been DeLay’s goal all along.