FOXNews.com: Senate Readies for Showdown on Tax Rates

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Senate Readies for Showdown on Tax Rates Jul 25th 2012, 12:33 WASHINGTON –  Senate Democrats are plowing ahead with a test vote Wednesday on their bill to extend some, but not all, of the Bush-era tax rates -- a vote doomed to fizzle, but which they'll use to make the election-year case that Republicans aren't looking out for the middle class.  Senators planned to vote Wednesday on a $250 billion Democratic bill that would extend expiring tax cuts next year for all but the highest earners. Democrats will need 60 votes to advance the proposal, which they do not have. Each side is leveling similar charges at the other -- charges of endangering the middle class, not to mention the fragile economic recovery. Republicans want to extend the rates, at least for one year, for everybody and say that failing to extend them for households making more than $250,000 won't just hurt the wealthy. It'll hurt small businesses too.  It seemed unlikely that senators also would vote on the rival GOP plan.  House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was ready to push legislation through his chamber next week that closely mirrors the Senate GOP measure. Republicans there introduced their bill on Tuesday, accompanied by another measure designed to speed work next year on legislation overhauling the entire tax code. The clash in the Senate underscored how little the partisan tax-cutting duel had to do with actually passing a law this year. If anything, it highlighted how entrenched both parties' views were. "Democrats will simply never agree we should hand out more tax breaks to the richest 2 percent of Americans while this economy is in the situation it's in now," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, sponsor of the Democratic bill. "Our friends on the other side are practicing what could best be described as `Thelma & Louise' econns, two sources of income enjoyed disproportionately by the wealthy. The GOP top rate would be 15 percent. The GOP bill ignores some tax reductions for low- and middle-income families that Democrats want to extend. These include the American opportunity tax credit, worth up to $2,500 to cover college expenses; language making the earned income tax credit more generous for large working families and some married working couples; and a boost in the tax refunds some families get under the child tax credit. All were part of Obama's 2009 stimulus bill, which Democrats say were meant to be permanent but Republicans say were only a short-term response to the recession. Combined, those Democratic provisions would provide tax breaks averaging $1,000 to 25 million families, according to Treasury Department figures distributed by the White House. Republicans also proposed bigger tax write-offs than Democrats did for small businesses taking deductions for the costs of buying some equipment. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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