Obama Would Keep Tax Breaks for Working Poor Despite Cost - washingtonpost.com

Obama Would Keep Tax Breaks for Working Poor Despite Cost - washingtonpost.com: "President Obama is proposing to add more than $85 billion to the nation's budget deficits over the next decade to extend two tax breaks for the working poor, a move critics on Wednesday blasted as a violation of Obama's pledge to pay for new policies.

The tax breaks were included in the economic stimulus package Obama signed soon after taking office in January, and are scheduled to expire in 2011. But last week, in its midyear update of the federal budget, the White House said it plans to extend the tax cuts through 2019 without covering the cost by cutting spending or raising taxes elsewhere.

The reason? Technically, the stimulus amended a series of sweeping tax cuts enacted in 2001 during the Bush administration. Obama has repeatedly said he does not expect Congress to cover the enormous cost of maintaining the Bush tax cuts past their 2010 expiration date. And because the stimulus provisions are now part of the Bush tax cuts, Congress shouldn't have to pay for them, either, White House budget documents say."