10A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
NATION
WEDNESDAY, MAY 10.2006
Congress to extend tax break
BY ANDREW TAYLOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress reached agreement Tuesday on a $70 billion measure to extend tax breaks for investors and prevent more middle-income families from being hit by a tax aimed at the wealthy.
The bill would hand President Bush one of his top tax priorities, a two-year extension of the reduced 15 percent tax rate for capital gains and dividends, currently set to expire at the end of 2008.
Republicans have credited the tax cuts, enacted in 2003, with boosting economic growth and creating many jobs.
The measure also would keep 15 million families from being hit this year with the alternative minimum tax, which was designed to make sure the wealthy paid taxes but is ensnaring more and more middle-income families because it is not indexed for inflation.
The accord paves the way for House approval of the measure as early as Wednesday. The Senate could clear the bill for Bush's desk by week's end.
"This is a responsible bill that protects families and small business owners from tax increases, while also providing investors with a bigger window of certainty—critical to continued economic growth," said Ways and Means Committee Chairman
m. Thomas, R-Caitl
Critics, including
many Democrats, have
attacked the tax rate reductions on dividends and corporate profits as being largely tilted to the wealthy and have argued that the provisions should not be extended at a time of large budget deficits and massive spending for the war in Iraq.
The development capped weeks of often difficult talks between
and alternative minimum tax relief in a first, filbuster-proof bill while using a second bill to approve various tax changes left out of the main legislation.
Under budget rules, only $70 billion in cuts can be advanced under fast-track rules that would prevent a possible filibuster by Senate Democrats.
GOP lawmakers as they wrangled over how to advance their party's tax agenda.
This is a responsible bill that protects families and small business owners from tax increases, while also providing investors with a bigger window of certainty-critical to continued economic growth."
That rule prompted Republicans to devise a strategy under which they would advance the investor tax breaks
Bill Thomas, R-Calif. Ways and Means Committee
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, had been holding off on finalizing the main measure in order to preserve negotiating leverage on the second measure, which is to contain a number of widely backed tax breaks.
They include a popular education tuition tax deduction, a tax break for teachers who buy their own
school supplies and a research and development tax credit for businesses
That measure would also preserve tax deductions for state and local sales taxes.
As talks dragged on the second measure, pressure built from GOP leaders and the White House to complete the main measure. Thomas said negotiations will continue on the second bill.
C. 1. Garvin/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bubbling with joy
Three-year-old Cody Dexter, of Washington, plays in the bubbles Monday in Beckwith, W.Va., as his mother Reece Dexter looks on. The family was in the state visiting relatives.
STATE
STATE Strong winds blow sixteen freight cars off tracks
BELLE PLAINE — Powerful winds blew 16 freight cars off tracks in southern Kansas early Tuesday, shutting down a key rail link, authorities said.
Sixteen of the 30 cars on a
The train was traveling from the Chicago area to Lubbock, Texas, Forsberg said, and was hauling empty containers stacked two
BNSF Railway freight train derailed just east of Belle Plaine, about 30 miles south of Wichita, rail line spokesman Steve Forsberg said. No injuries were reported in the accident, which occurred about 3:40 a.m.
high. High winds were suspected as the cause; the National Weather Service said winds in the area reached as high as 60 mph around the time the train derailed.
The derailment happened on a single-track section of rail. The track was expected to be reopened earlyTuesday evening, Forsberg said.
The Associated Press
NATION
Robert Burke/THE TAMPA TRIBUNE
A brush fire burns in Sun City Center, Fla., Tuesday. Evacuations were ordered nearby due to heavy smoke. Several wildfires blazing through parched central Florida will continue closing down large stretches of Interstate 95 in the morning hours, but no homes were in immediate danger of the flames, officials said Tuesday.
Fires scorch Florida
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency and called in the Florida National Guard to help fight wildfires that have burned
thousands of acres and blanketed highways with thick smoke. Officials are tracking about 50 active wildfires throughout the water-parched state, including blazes just south of Daytona Beach that have destroyed three homes and shut down stretches of Interstate 95.
said. "We had a little bit of rain but not enough to give people assurances that we are not going to have more fires."
Rain was expected to help some areas Tuesday afternoon, but officials worried that lightning could spark more blazes.
The governor said many of the fires likely started with either human negligence or malevolence.
"We are a tinder box right now. We had a little bit of rain but not enough to give people assurances that we are not going to have more fires."
Jeb Bush Florida Governor
The governor declared a state of emergency Monday night, deploying aviation units from the Florida National Guard. He also met with some of the 155 firefighters working to contain a fire in New Smyrna Beach that has consumed about 1,300 acres since Sunday and destroyed three homes.
"We still have significant wildfire conditions and need a tremendous amount of rain to get back to normal levels," New Smyrna Beach spokeswoman Shannon Lewis said Tuesday.
"We are a tinder box right now," Bush
About 1,000 residents were ordered to evacuate Sunday in New Smyrna Beach as the fire approached. Avia Toney was relieved Monday to find her house had been spared. She fled the neighborhood only when she saw fire approaching through the woods across a nearby golf course.
"It was right at the edge of the woods,"
she said. "Ashes were falling. It was black and ugly."
More than 2,200 wildfires have burned over 44,000 acres in Florida since Jan.1, according to the state Division of Forestry.
"These fires are consuming everything," said Jim Brenner, the division's fire management administrator." And it's not over by any stretch of the imagination."
Interstate 95 had reopened early Tuesday in Brevard and Volusia counties, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Kim Miller said. However, smoke could shut it down again if the fires flare up again.
---