Eager to sign his fourth tax cut in as many years, President Bush is pushing congressional leaders to extend a series of middle-class tax cuts before Congress's planned adjournment at the end of the week.
Democrats charge that the president is trying to ram the tax cuts through in time to hold a signing ceremony during their convention next week.
To move the tax package quickly, Republican leaders in Congress want to revive moribund negotiations on an expanded child credit for the working poor and amend it to extend tax cuts for married couples, middle-income families with children, and lower-income workers. Because the package would emerge from House and Senate negotiations on the child credit issue, lawmakers would be presented a take-it-or-leave-it tax package before they adjourn until September.
But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) may balk at what even some Republicans see as a strong-arm tactic, according to senior Finance Committee aides. And a bipartisan group of senators is pushing a far more modest, one-year tax cut extension that would close loopholes and raise fees to ensure the package does not expand the record budget deficit.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62851-2004Jul19.html