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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SecularBull who wrote (366835)	3/6/2003 12:15:19 AM
From: steve dietrich	Respond to of 769667

Then you'll probably be glad of the pork your house speaker added to the tax cut for the military. This is what I was referring to a couple days ago. News Home - Yahoo! - Help Advanced Top Stories - USA TODAY Extras attached to tax-break bill for U.S. troops Wed Mar 5, 7:54 AM ET Add Top Stories - USA TODAY to My Yahoo! Kathy Kiely USA TODAY WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives is set to vote Thursday on special tax breaks for American troops stationed overseas. But members' generosity won't end there. Also expected to benefit from the ''Armed Forces Tax Fairness Act'' are overseas horse players betting on races in the USA, U.S. bow-and-arrow manufacturers and a fishing tackle box maker headquartered in House Speaker Dennis Hastert's Illinois district. Those are some of the special-interest tax provisions tucked into a popular bill that's likely to win bipartisan support. The provisions aimed at troops are relatively modest and non-controversial. Servicemembers would get a capital-gains tax break on the sale of their homes, even if military duty prevented them from meeting the two-year residency requirement normally required. Federal taxes would be eliminated on payments to military families for homeowners' assistance, dependent care and death benefits. But the measure has attracted 16 unrelated tax provisions, including one that would suspend the tax-exempt status of any organization the president deemed to be supporting terrorism. Other provisions are raising objections from Democrats. Sponsors say they are just trying to get sound tax policy enacted as quickly as possible. They want to: * Repeal the 10% excise tax on fishing tackle boxes. This is being pushed by the Plano Molding Co, based in Hastert's district. It says its customers are buying sewing boxes for their fishing tackle because there is no tax on them. The repeal was included in a tax bill in 1999 that was vetoed by President Clinton (news - web sites). Ben Fallon, a spokesman for Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Ill., says it would help save about 500 jobs. * Impose an excise tax on bows and arrows imported into the USA. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., says he's trying to close a loophole that taxes equipment made in the USA but not imports. Some manufacturers have moved offshore, he says. * Lift the surtax on overseas horse-racing bettors. Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., says the federal government's policy of taking 30% of the winnings of any non-resident foreigner who collects on a bet made on a U.S. race is discouraging foreigners from participating in U.S. betting pools. But the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, which drafted the bill, accused Republicans of limiting tax deductions for military reservists' travel expenses in order to pay for other tax breaks. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., criticized capping the reservists' travel deduction at $500, instead of giving an unlimited deduction, as the Senate did in its version of the bill. ''Never before have I seen members of Congress rush to put special interests before the interests of our men and women in uniform,'' Rangel said.