Absolutely true, but they will use this in the '04 campaign of course. We would be in deficit even without the added spending on security and the war. Its a recession contraction thing that began 10 months before Bush was sworn in. Dems are totally blind to this. This is starting to sound like a chat forum, so something factual: Senate proposals will always be tamer than House ones due to the fact that they have a wider constituency to please. House reps usually represent somewhat homogenous groups, so they can be more aggressive. Its always been this way. Jay
It seems that there will be cuts on captial gains, but only for a few years. Well, it is better than nothing. ============================================================================ Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, told House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas that the tentative agreement outlined earlier on Wednesday could not pass because the total tops the $350 billion limit set by the Senate. Thomas left the meeting in anger, a Senate aide said. Thomas had told reporters his understanding of the deal was that it would follow the outlines of a $550 billion measure passed by the House that would lower the top rates on dividend taxes and capital gains to 15 percent. The rate cuts for dividends and capital gains would expire at the end of 2009. For lower income people, the tax rate on dividends and capital gains would be 5 percent and that would drop to zero for one year before expiring, Thomas said. Currently dividends are taxed at normal income rates, while most capital gains are taxed at 20 percent. Senate aides suggested the changing the expiration date to 2008 would bring the package's total cost under the $350 billion total the Senate wants. http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/030521/congress_taxes_5.html