2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 9, 2005
NATION/WORLD
House Republicans win war
on taxes, plan to cut billions
Bill to maintain tax cuts
passes in House despite outcry
from Democrats
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House voted yes-
terday to make sure investors hang onto lowered
tax rates for capital gains and dividends for an
extra two years.
Voting mostly along party lines, the House nar-
rowly passed a $56-billion, five-year package of
tax cuts that retains reduced tax rates on capital
gains and dividends in 2009 and 2010. The vote
was 234-197.
Republicans said their record of tax cutting revi-
talized a sluggish economy, and the White House
praised the bill. "These extensions are necessary to
provide certainty for investors and businesses and are
essential to sustaining long-term economic growth,"
the president's budget office said in a statement.
Democrats said tax cuts for investment income,
and much of the GOP's economic agenda, help
Republican friends and ignore average workers.
"Everybody loses under this bill. Everybody,
that is, except the top one-fifth of 1 percent,"
said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) "Some might call
them the superrich. Apparently, the majority
calls them donors."
The tax bill includes some items popular with
both Republicans and Democrats. Most of those
provisions preserve tax breaks that would other-
wise expire in a few weeks, including deductions
for state and local sales taxes, tuition and class-
room supplies purchased by teachers.
Businesses won extensions of two major ben-
efits: a tax credit for research and development and
write-offs for small business investment.
The tax cut package was passed a day after the
House pushed through three other tax bills by
overwhelming majorities. One offered businesses
incentives to stay or establish in hurricane-ravaged
Gulf Coast communities. A second extended some
small tax breaks expiring at the end of the year,
including one that helps soldiers in combat claim
the earned income tax credit.
A third bill blunts the bite of the alternative mini-
mum tax, which threatens to hit some 17 million
individuals and families with higher taxes next year.
It's unclear whether these bills can be recon-
ciled with different versions passed in the Senate
in the short time that lawmakers have the rest of
this year.
The Senate earlier struggled to get enough sup-
port for a two-year extension of capital gains and
dividends tax cuts. They ultimately decided to drop
the effort for a short time to get their tax agenda
moving. Senate leaders vowed to make sure the
final version of the legislation keeps the invest-
ment tax cuts alive.
The 15-percent tax rate for investment income
is currently scheduled to disappear at the end of
2008. If the reduction runs out, the top capital
gains tax rate would be 20 percent and dividends
would be taxed like ordinary income at rates up
to 35 percent.
The House rejected an alternative tax package
drafted by Democrats that would have omitted the
tax breaks for investment income. It also would
have replaced $43 billion in government revenue
lost to tax cuts by raising taxes on individuals
earning more than $500,000 and couples earning
more than $1 million.
Decision to shoot depends on threat
Federal officials say air
marshals acted properly
in shooting death .
WASHINGTON (AP) - Learning
to accurately fire a weapon is rela-
tively easy for most law enforcement
officers. Determining when to pull
the trigger is not.
Often there are only seconds to
make a life-or-death decision, as at
Miami International Airport when air
marshals shot and killed an unarmed
passenger, yesterday.
Federal officials said yesterday the
marshals acted properly.
"Deadly force may be employed
only when a federal agent has prob-
able cause to believe there is an
imminent threat of death or serious
physical injury to himself, his part-
ner or others. In this situation here,
this was textbook," said Dave Adams,
a spokesman for the Federal Air Mar-
shal Service.
The marshals shot Rigoberto Alpi-
zar, 44, on Wednesday with their SIG
Sauer handguns after he ran from a
parked American Airlines jet shout-
ing he had a bomb, Adams said.
The two marshals, still publicly
unidentified, had chased him from the
Orlando-bound plane and confronted
him in the jetway. They opened fire
after Alpizar, ignoring commands to
WASHINGTON
Patriot Act extension may be filibustered
House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement yesterday to extend
the USA Patriot Act, the government's premier anti-terrorism law, before it
expires at the end of the month. But a Democratic senator threatened a fili-
buster to block the compromise.
"I will do everything I can, including a filibuster, to stop this Patriot Act
conference report, which does not include adequate safeguards to protect our
constitutional freedoms," said Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who was the only
senator to vote against the original version of the Patriot Act.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced that the nego-
tiating committee had reached an agreement that would extend for four years
two of the Patriot Act's most controversial provisions - authorizing roving
wiretaps and permitting secret warrants for books, records and other items
from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries.
BAGHDAD
Suicide bomber kills 32, wounds 44
A suicide bomber detonated explosives yesterday inside a packed bus bound for a
southern Shiite city, killing 32 people and wounding 44, police said. The blast pushed
the three-day death toll from suicide attacks in the capital to at least 75.
Meanwhile, a statement posted on the Internet in the name of the Islamic Army in
Iraq claimed to have killed an American hostage. The statement did not name him or
provide photos, but the group earlier identified its captive as Ronald Alan Schulz and
threatened to kill him unless all prisoners in Iraq were released.
The suicide attack occurred as the bus was pulling away from east Baghdad's
Nadhaa station bound for Nasiriyah, 200 miles to the south. A man carrying a bag
suddenly jumped on the vehicle through the open door, apparently waiting until the
last moment to board to avoid security checks.
He was challenged by the conductor but insisted on taking a seat, police Lt. Wisam
Hakim said.
"He sat in the middle of the bus and then the explosion took place," Hakim said.
Police Lt. Ali Mitaab said 32 people were killed and 44 wounded. Most of those
killed were on the bus, which was gutted by flames, but several people around a food
stall also died, police said.
WASHINGTON
Rumsfeld: Troop levels could drop soon
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the possibility yesterday of reducing
U.S. troop levels in Iraq next year below the 137,000 level of the summer.
Between meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Rumsfeld told reporters that
if next week's elections in Iraq go well he expects U.S. troops levels, which were
boosted to nearly 160,000 in advance of the election, to return to the 137,000 level.
"If conditions permit, we could go below that," he said.
Later he stressed that a decision to go below 137,000 would depend on conditions
after the election and the recommendation of senior U.S. commanders.
The Pentagon started building up troop levels this fall to 160,000 for extra security
during Iraqi elections in October and in December.
WASHINGTON
Poll: Most Americans see gov't as corrupt
Indictments, investigations and a congressman's guilty plea for taking
millions in bribes have left most Americans convinced that political cor-
ruption is a deeply rooted problem, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos
poll.
Missteps and misconduct that have reached into all levels of govern-
ment have helped drive 88 percent of those surveyed to say the problem is
a serious one.
Scandal has touched all politicians. President Bush's approval rating
was 42 percent, slightly better than his standing in the previous AP-Ipsos
poll, due in part to improvements in the economy. Still, 57 percent of those
surveyed disapproved of Bush's handling of the presidency.
Amat, who is also a deputy with the
U.S. Marshals Service in Miami.
"Hollywood has this perception that
we are such marksmen we can shoot
an arm or leg with accuracy. We
can't. These guys were in a very tense
situation. In their minds they had to
believe this person was an imminent
threat to themselves or the people on
the plane."
Air marshals fly undercover and
never alone. While they have been
involved in numerous incidents, the
shooting was the first time a marshal
had fired a weapon on duty since the
Sept. 11 attacks, which prompted the
hiring of thousands.
White House spokesman Scott
McClellan said that "I don't think
anyone wants to see it come to a situ-
ation like this" but that it appeared
the marshals acted properly. Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales said "we
obviously need to wait for the inves-
tigation to conclude" to determine if
the marshals should have done some-
thing differently.
Marshals typically come from
law enforcement backgrounds.
They undergo further training at the
agency's academy in New Jersey, as
well as ongoing training at 21 field
offices around the country. They,
are held to the highest standards in
marksmanship of any federal offi-
cers, Adams said.
01
The sister-in- law and brother-in-law of Rigoberto Alpizar make a state-
ment for reporters in front of Alpizar's home in Maitland, Fla., yesterday.
stop and lie down, approached the
marshals as he reached to his back-
pack and continued to claim he had
a bomb, Adams said. No explosives
were found after the shooting.
Witnesses said Alpizar's wife,
Anne, had frantically tried to explain
he was bipolar, a mental illness also
known as manic-depression, and was
off his medication.
Shooting to maim or injure is not
an option for federal agents, said John
Amat, national operations vice presi-
dent of the Federal Law Enforcement
Officers Association, which includes
air marshals in its membership.
"The bottom line is, we're trained
to shoot to stop the threat," said
- Compiled from Daily wire reports
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