Businesses Want More Breaks in Bush's Tax Plan
WASHINGTON -- President-elect George W. Bush is under growing pressure to pack his overall tax-cut plan with more breaks for business -- an area he gave scant attention during the campaign.</br></br>Business lobbyists have flooded the Bush transition team with requests for everything from technical tweaks to global overhauls. And if Mr. Bush rejects adding more business cuts to his $1.6 trillion, 10-year plan, members of Congress are expressing interest in doing it themselves -- likely at the expense of Mr. Bush's big across-the-board rate reduction.</br></br>"Most people are of the opinion that a smaller cut that's more targeted would be better," said Sen. John Breaux, the Louisiana Democrat who is an influential member of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee. "I think the long-term across-the-board reduction is fine but it's expensive."</br></br>Mr. Breaux cited two business-oriented breaks he favored that he believed Mr. Bush would like: incentives for energy production and credits for health care. While health-care credits would benefit families directly, they also would help insurance companies sign up more customers.</br></br>Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the incoming chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said last week he favored more targeted provisions, including energy breaks and retirement-account reforms. Mr. Grassley said he doesn't sense sufficient support yet for Mr. Bush's across-the-board rate cut, which would provide the biggest sums to the well-to-do, but he added that he plans to keep plugging to win votes for individual rate relief, regardless.