From: GHADSAL@auvm.american.edu
Newsgroups: soc.college,soc.college.grad,soc.college.gradinfo
Subject: EEA HR-11 Update
Date: 11 Oct 92 15:20:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: auvm.92285.112044GHADSAL
Organization: The American University - University Computing Center

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
**********************************************************
**    TAX  STATUS FOR EMPLOYER EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE   ****************
**              =  OR THE  TUITION REMISSION TAX EXEMPTION EXTENSION  **
************************************************************************

HEY GRAD STUDENT, THANK YOUR CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS FOR ALL *YOUR*
"PORK" THAT YOU WILL NOT BE RECIEVING THIS NEXT YEAR...MAYBE EVER.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Subject: Would-Be Beneficiaries Hold Out Hope That Bush Will Sign Tax-Relief
Bill;
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 92 13:12:24 EDT

WOULD-BE BENEFICIARIES HOLD OUT HOPE THAT BUSH WILL SIGN TAX-
RELIEF BILL; WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS SAY CAMPAIGN PLEDGE MAKES VETO
LIKELY<BY ERIC PIANIN

Despite White House threats of a veto of the $27 billion tax
bill, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.)
and a number of groups with a stake in the legislation contended
yesterday there was still a chance President Bush would sign the
bill.

White House officials said this week that Bush, who has vowed to
never "ever" again raise taxes, would veto the tax-relief bill
because it contains nearly three dozen offsetting "tax in-
creases."

But the tax bill has emerged as such a mosaic of special interest
benefits - with tax breaks for groups ranging from real estate
agents to boat manufacturers to nonprofit housing groups to the
securities industry - that Bush may find it difficult to kill it
for reasons forged on the campaign trail.

The White House has been bombarded this week with calls, letters
and telegrams from groups arguing on behalf of the bill. An um-
brella group representing 500 community nonprofit housing groups
from 42 states sent a letter this week saying their programs
would be jeopardized without the extension of the low-income
housing tax credit.
bill."

"I don't think it's hopeless," Driesler said.  John McEvoy, exe-
cutive director of the National Council of State Housing Agen-
cies, said, "We consider the bill very much alive and well, with
a 50-50 chance of being signed."

"Because of the tax increases in the legislation, we're likely to
veto it," the spokesman said.<

Bush has the choice of signing the bill, vetoing it, or allowing
it to die by simply not signing it within 10 days of receiving
it, because Congress has adjourned for the year and would have no
opportunity to override a veto. This third alternative is known
as a "pocket veto."<

Critics of the administration's stand say the tax increase argu-
ment is specious. Unlike the middle-income tax relief bill that
Bush vetoed in March, the tax bill contains no increases in the
tax rate of upper-income taxpayers. Two provisions Bush objected
to that would have affected exemptions and deductions of upper-
income taxpayers were dropped to appease the president.

The bill is financed in more subtle ways, by changing tax rules
for securities dealers, imposing a $10,000 ceiling on moving ex-
pense deductions, denying the deductability of club dues, and ac-
celerating the tax payments of individuals and corporations that
file quarterly tax returns. Some of the revenue raisers included
in the bill were agreed to in advance by the industries affected,
as a trade-off to receive certain other tax breaks.  Prior to the
Republican National Convention in August, Bush and his top aides
were highly enthusiastic about many of the proposals that wound
up in the bill. However, since Bush renewed his new no-new-taxes
stance and attacked Democrat Bill Clinton for raising 128 taxes
and fees as governor of Arkansas, the administration has turned
on the bill.

The bill includes four of the seven major economic growth initia-
tives included in Bush's 1993 budget proposals. Congress refused
to go along with the administration's proposal for cutting the
capital gains tax on policy grounds, and it dropped his proposed
investment tax allowance and first-time home buyers tax credit
because they were too costly.

IRONICALLY, IN OPPOSING THE BILL ON THE GROUNDS IT WOULD RAISE
TAXES, BUSH MAY INDIRECTLY BE CONTRIBUTING TO TAX INCREASES. BY
ALLOWING THE DOZEN POPULAR TAX BREAKS TO EXPIRE, THE ADMINISTRA-
TION WOULD EFFECTIVELY BE BOOSTING THE TAX BURDEN OF GROUPS
COVERED BY THE CREDITS BY ABOUT $1.8 BILLION ANNUALLY.

Those credits subsidize research and experimentation by
businesses and universities; low-income rental housing; health
INSURANCE FOR SELF-EMPLOYED INDIVIDUALS; EMPLOYER-PROVIDED EDUCA-
TION ASSISTANCE; THE HIRING OF HARD-TO-PLACE WORKERS; MORTGAGE
bonds; small issue manufacturing bonds; business investment in
solar and geothermal energy, charitable contributions of artwork
and other tangibles, and the manufacturing of drugs to treat rare
DISEASES.