Veto Threat Number Two

Bush is threatening his second veto within the last two weeks. The first one was threat to veto any bill that would outlaw the use of torture (even though he claims we don't torture).

Now, this veto threat on a bill just passed through the Senate on $60 billion in tax cuts. Why is he threatening to veto it? Is it because it would raise taxes on the middle or lower class? No. Is it because it hurts family owned farms? No. Is it bebause it cuts $700 million in spending on food stamps for the working poor? No. Is it because it did not eliminate the alternative minimum tax? Nope.

It is because it would increase oil companies taxes by $4.3 billion dollars. This is for an industry that recently received billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives just prior to reaping the largest profits in corporate history.

Is it really a mystery as to why the majority of Americans don't believe Bush has their interests in mind?

$60B Tax-Cut Bill Faces Bush Veto Threat

By MARY DALRYMPLE, AP Tax Writer

WASHINGTON - A $60 billion bill the Senate passed to continue expiring tax cuts and shelter 14 million families from higher taxes faces a White House veto threat because it also includes a hefty tax increase for oil companies.

The legislation passed by senators early Friday would spare millions of families from paying increased taxes through the alternative minimum tax. Much of the bill, passed 64-33, preserves tax cuts approved in previous years that are set to expire unless lawmakers keep them alive.

But unlike a bill assembled by the House tax writing committee, it does not preserve lower tax rates for capital gains and dividends scheduled to disappear at the end of 2008. Congress lowered the maximum tax rate on that investment income to 15 percent in 2003, and many Republicans want to act this year to keep those rates in place in 2009 and 2010.

It was doubtful whether the House would vote on its bill before leaving for the Thanksgiving holiday. "It's a possibility that we'll move it if we're ready to move it," Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said early Friday. "We'll have to see where the votes are."

Most Democrats oppose the tax cuts for investment income. Senate leaders dropped an extension from their bill because a key moderate Republican balked at its inclusion.

GOP leaders vow it will reappear before the final tax bill reaches President Bush's desk.

The White House wants to see another change in the Senate bill: elimination of a $4.3 billion tax increase on oil companies.

"This provision would result in a retroactive tax increase by changing a long-accepted accounting practice," the White House said in a statement warning that senior advisers would recommend that President Bush veto the legislation if it's not removed.