December 06, 2007
Reid Drops Offsets On AMT Patch
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today sought unanimous consent to pass a one-year patch for the alternative minimum tax without offsets, after failing to get cloture to proceed to a House-passed bill that would have offset the $50 billion cost of the AMT fix.
The Reid offer, which Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., called a "huge concession" to Republicans, drew an immediate GOP objection on the Senate floor. A GOP aide said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is "running the traps" and Republicans will likely sign off on the offer by the end of the day. The only question is whether senators who had sought to offer amendments to the AMT package -- including Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. -- will go along with the consent request.
The cloture motion failed 46-48 on a straight party-line vote, with the exception of Reid, who changed his vote to preserve his right to ask that the bill be reconsidered.
-Martin Vaughan, CongressDaily, with Christian Bourge contributing
See today's CongressDailyPM (subscription) for the full story. National Journal profiled the Democrats' tax reform efforts in a cover story last month.
Posted at 3:19 PM
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Congress, Senate, Taxes
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