House GOP Confident on $70B Tax Cut Vote

Congressional Republican leaders on Wednesday anticipated victory in their drawn-out efforts to preserve President Bush's tax cuts worth $70 billion to investors and to keep 15 million taxpayers from being hit by the alternative minimum tax.

House GOP leaders slated a late Wednesday afternoon vote on the bill, which would let Bush achieve one of his top tax priorities and give his GOP allies on Capitol Hill a victory in times of sagging poll numbers. The Senate was expected to clear the bill Thursday.

The bill devotes $21 billion to a two-year extension of the reduced 15 percent tax rate for capital gains and dividends, currently set to expire at the end of 2008.

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