Senate Dems Nix Taxes for New GI Bill

[unhappycamper]

Senate Dems Nix Taxes for New GI Bill
May 15, 2008
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Senate leaders are rejecting a plan by Democrats in the House of Representatives to add a surcharge on upper-income taxpayers to a bill providing $163 billion to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next year.

The half-percentage point surcharge on income exceeding $500,000 for individuals and income above $1 million for couples was added to the House war funding bill on Tuesday. The tax increase would be used to finance a $52 billion increase in college aid for post-Sept. 11, 2001, veterans that has been added to the war funding measure.

The tax increase on wealthier people was inserted to mollify moderate House Democrats upset with Democratic leaders' original plan to simply add the big increase in benefits under the GI Bill to the near-record budget deficit. That would violate so-called pay-as-you-go budget rules that require new benefit programs to be "paid for" with accompanying revenue increases or spending cuts.

But Democratic Sen. Patty Murray - a member of the party's leadership team - rejected the idea Wednesday, telling reporters that the additional veterans money is a cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new college aid bill would essentially guarantee a full-ride scholarship to any in-state public university, along with a monthly housing stipend, for individuals who serve the military for at least three years. It's aimed at replicating the GI Bill benefits awarded veterans of World War II.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/senate-dems-nix-taxes-for-new-gi-bill.html