House OKs ‘Veto-Proof’ Tax Cut for Couples

The House of Representatives voted Thursday for an election-year tax cut for married couples that its Republican backers said gives President Clinton no excuse to carry out his veto threat.

The House voted, 271 to 156, for the bill, with 51 Democrats joining the Republican majority, and sent it to the Senate, where passage is expected today.

Republicans said they hoped to rush the bill to the president’s desk--forcing him to take action on the measure, which is the centerpiece of the Republican tax-cut agenda--ahead of their national convention, which starts July 31 in Philadelphia.

“You know, there’s no reason on Earth that the president should veto this bill,” House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said.

“There will be no excuse--no excuse--for the president vetoing this bill,” echoed Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.).

The legislation, a compromise between House and Senate versions, would ease the so-called marriage penalty in the tax code by raising the standard deduction for married couples from $7,350 to $8,800, double that given unmarried taxpayers. It would take effect retroactively to Jan. 1.

For couples who itemize their returns, it would expand the lowest 15% tax bracket over five years, starting last Jan. 1. It also would expand the earned income tax credit for low-income couples.

But Democrats said the marriage tax cut and others, including a bill to abolish estate taxes, were too big and skewed to the wealthy at the expense of surpluses that could finance other priorities.