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 'I r'' WRITE FOR THE DAILY NEWS TEAM. 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