Senate Passes Dem Tax Bill

By Dan Friedman

Updated: July 25, 2012 | 6:16 p.m.
July 25, 2012 | 4:59 p.m.

The Senate passed Democrats' tax bill (51-48), supported by President Obama, to extend for one year reduced rates for individual income less than $200,000 a year and couples' income less than $250,000 a year.

The Senate also rejected a GOP bill to extend all the Bush-era tax cuts.
The House, where Republicans expect to pass their own bill extending all the tax cuts next week, is unlikely to consider the Senate’s bill.
Senate Democrats say passage helps put the two chambers on even ground when a tax deal is negotiated in the lame-duck session.
Republicans called Democrats’ bill purely political. “It’s not about the economy. It’s about the election,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said.
Passage of the Democratic bill came after Senate Republicans, in a reversal, agreed to not filibuster the bill, thereby allowing it to pass with a simple majority

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