House Forgoes Republican Alternative and Passes Democratic Budget
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) gave a speech on the House floor asking his colleagues to vote for the alternative budget and explaining the differences and the long-term debt and tax burden that will be left for future generations to carry on their backs.
Here is how the vote fared in the House for the alternatives proposed:
Republican Substitute:
FAILED
REP. PAUL D. RYAN, R-Wis., will offer a substitute on behalf of the Republican Conference that calls for $3.28 trillion in outlays in FY 2010, and $2.29 trillion in revenue, for a deficit of $993 billion. It projects a deficit of $529 billion by FY 2014, and $593 billion by FY 2019. The substitute calls for $539 billion in non-defense discretionary funds. Its total for defense spending in FY 2010 is $690 billion (including funds for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan), $5 billion more than requested by the president and contained in the resolution.
Taxes
The Republican substitute assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will be extended beyond their scheduled expiration at the end of 2010 — including the estate-tax provisions, the child-tax credit, the “marriage penalty” provisions, and the current marginal income tax rates.
The substitute also assumes that the alternative minimum tax (AMT) will be “patched” indefinitely, and therefore would not affect additional taxpayers. It also assumes a change in the tax code in which only two tax rates would be applicable to different incomes — a 10% tax on adjusted gross income up to $100,000 for joint filers and $50,000 for single filers, and a 25% tax on income above these amounts. Read more
