user: Problem: Official: Obama to back permanent R&D tax credit

WASHINGTON (AP)  Seeking ways to spur economic growth ahead of the November elections, President

will ask Congress to increase and permanently extend research and development tax credits for businesses, a

Obama will outline the $100 billion proposal during a speech on the economy Wednesday in Cleveland, the official said. The announcement is expected to be the first in a series of new measures Obama will propose this fall as the administration looks to jump-start an economy that the president himself has said isn't growing fast enough.

In addition to making the research credits permanent, Obama will also ask Congress to extend one of the credit options available to businesses from 14 to 17%, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the proposal has not been formally announced.

Obama has proposed making the research and development tax credit permanent before, as part of the budget he submitted to Congress earlier this year.

"That's where U.S. competitiveness lies in high-technology industries," Laura Tyson, a member of Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, said Sunday on Face the Nation on CBS.

"I don't think this is something that has ... as immediate a job impact as, say, movement on the current tax credits for the unemployed or extending a payroll tax holiday of some sort. But I think it's very important in terms of job creation over the longer term," Tyson said.

While the idea is popular in Congress, coming up with offsetting tax increases or spending cuts has been a stumbling block. Obama will ask lawmakers to close corporate tax breaks for multinational corporations and oil and gas companies.

Congress has previously passed research tax credits on a temporary basis. The credits expired last year and a proposal for renewal is pending in the Senate.

While research credits generally have bipartisan support, Washington's contentious political atmosphere means the White House isn't taking anything for granted. Officials have watched other proposals they deem necessary to economic growth, including a bill to extend credit and cut taxes for small businesses, languish on Capitol Hill.

The proposal for research and development tax credits was first reported by The New York Times.

Amid an uptick in the jobless rate to 9.6%, the president promised to announce a series of new measures on the economy. The package could include infrastructure bonds for municipalities and extensions for other tax breaks for businesses and individuals that expired at the end of 2009.

The administration is also considering extending a law passed in March that exempts companies that hire unemployed workers from paying Social Security taxes on those workers through December. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has proposed extending the exemption an additional six months.

Obama is continuing to prod the Senate to pass the small business bill that calls for about $12 billion in tax breaks and a $30 billion fund to help unfreeze lending. Republicans have likened the bill to the unpopular bailout of the financial industry. And the president wants to make permanent the portion of George W. Bush's tax cuts affecting the middle class.

The House has already passed many of the provisions, but they have stalled in the Senate because Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on how to pay for them.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka argued for job investment as a way of putting money in the pockets of middle-class Americans and others who need it.

"We do need more credit for small- and midsized businesses so that they can start creating jobs," Trumka said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union. "All of that will help, but it may not be enough. Even the holiday on taxes may not be enough, the research and development tax credit may not be enough. We need to create demand."

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Summary: Seeking ways to spur economic growth ahead of the November elections, President Obama will ask Congress to increase and permanently extend research and development tax credits for businesses, a White House official said Sunday.


Input: Residency and Rahm Emanuel
Nov. 22 is the filing deadline for candidates for Chicago mayor. Who's running the pool? We've got 10 bucks that says someone will officially challenge Rahm Emanuel's residency by noon the following Monday.

The Rahm-doesn't-live-here crowd was at it even before Emanuel announced that he was coming home to run for mayor. This isn't his home any more, they say. He moved to Washington in 2009 to be chief of staff for President Barack Obama. And they say he can't claim to be a Chicagoan again now that Mayor Richard Daley is retiring.

We've heard the arguments and feel confident Emanuel is firmly and legally rooted to Chicago. That won't stop his challengers and their attorneys from making their noise. They'll have little hope of knocking him off the ballot but plenty of time to brand him an outsider and an opportunist — a carpetbagger, in other words — as they plead their case to the Chicago Board of Elections. They can keep it alive all the way to the state Supreme Court, and why not? It's a great way to change the subject when someone brings up a touchy issue like, for example, upcoming contract negotiations with Chicago Transit Authority unions.

Under Illinois' municipal code, a candidate must be a resident of the city for a year prior to the election. The code doesn't spell out a definition for residency, though it does explicitly make an exception for members of the military who serve away from home.

The state election code includes a broader "government service exemption" that protects the claim to residency for anyone who leaves temporarily "on business of the United States." Chief of staff to the president seems to fit that bill. Courts have said that exemption protects the right to run for office as well as the right to vote, as long as the person plans to return when the job is done.

Despite living in D.C., Emanuel still owns a home in Chicago and used that address to vote absentee in the Feb. 2 Democratic primary.

Attorney Burt Odelson, the de facto point man for candidates contemplating an objection, argues that the government service exemption doesn't apply to White House jobs and says Emanuel gave up residency when he rented out the house and moved his family to Washington. He has no place to come home to — no place to keep a toothbrush, Odelson says — so he's not a resident.

Obama could run for mayor because he tags up at his Kenwood home now and then. So could Gov. Pat Quinn, who votes in Chicago even though he keeps his underwear (and, we assume, a toothbrush) at the governor's mansion in Springfield.

We haven't found any successful electoral challenges that relied on the toothbrush test. Instead, the courts have focused on determining the candidate's intent. Emanuel's White House job was temporary by definition. It doesn't matter that someone else is living in his Chicago house — why let it sit empty if he can collect rent? — and the fact that he leased it instead of selling bolsters the argument that he meant to return. That occasion came sooner rather than later, thanks to Daley, but we have to believe the possibility of running for Chicago mayor is one reason Emanuel made sure he kept an address in the city.

Chicago will be served by a broad and diverse field of candidates for mayor. We're glad to have a candidate with Emanuel's credentials in the race. It will be a shame, though not really a surprise, if the mayoral campaign is hijacked by candidates who want to wage a diversionary debate over whether he belongs to Chicago or Washington.
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assistant: Nov. 22 is the filing deadline for candidates for Chicago mayor. Who's running the pool? We've got 10 bucks that says someone will officially challenge Rahm Emanuel's residency by noon the following