TAXES HIGHLIGHTS  THE XXXX RECORD BUSH TAX CUTS 2001 XXXX Voted For $1.2 Trillion Tax Cut. In 2001, XXXX voted for the FY 2002 budget resolution, which included a $1.188 trillion tax cut over the next 10 years. The legislation also included a Democratic plan for $85 billion in immediate tax rebates. The resolution fell short of Bush’s proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut. It also budgeted $2.624 trillion for debt reduction, as well as substantial increases in appropriated and mandatory spending, and a 7 percent increase in FY 2002 discretionary spending. [Vote 86, 4/6/01] XXXX Supported Bush2001 Tax Cut Plan. On May 26, 2001, XXXX voted for the H.R.1836 conference report, which reduced taxes by $1.35 trillion through 2010 with income tax rate cuts, relief of the marriage penalty, a phase-out of the federal estate tax, doubling the child tax credit, and providing incentives for retirement savings. A new ten percent tax rate was created retroactively to the start of 2001, and taxpayers would get one-time rebate checks of $300 for singles and $600 for couples. The bill would double the $500-per-child tax credit by 2010 and make it refundable. It raised the estate tax exemption to $1 million in 2002 and phased out the tax over ten years. [Vote 170, 5/26/01]  XXXX Voted For Senate Passage Of The 2001 Bush Tax Cut. XXXX voted for final passage of the Senate’s version of the Bush Tax Cut Plan. The bill provided a total of $1.347 trillion in tax cuts through fiscal year (FY) 2011, with its provisions due to sunset at the close of FY 2011. Every tax bracket was cut by the bill, except for the 15-percent bracket, which did not receive a rate reduction. [Vote 165, 5/23/01] XXXX Voted Against Cutting Top-Bracket Tax Cuts. XXXX voted against an amendment to the Tax Relief Act of 2001 that would have denied tax cuts for the 36-percent and 39.6-percent brackets until 2009, at which time it would make only a 1-point reduction in both. The amendment would also have made the two marriage penalty relief provisions in the bill that were to be phased in, take effect immediately. [Vote 112, 5/17/01] XXXX Cast Deciding Vote to Keep Tax Cut in Place for Higher Tax Brackets Instead of Giving Tax Relief to Lower Brackets. In 2001, XXXX cast one of the deciding votes against an amendment to the Tax Relief Act of 2001, that would have reduced and delayed the tax cuts. The bill, as introduced in the Senate, included many changes in income tax rates, but the “rate changes conspicuously omitted couples with taxable incomes between $12,000 and $45,000, who would continue to pay a 15 percent marginal rate.” Jean “Carnahan proposed to correct ‘this serious inequity’ by dropping the 15 percent rate to 14 percent, and providing for smaller reductions – 2 percentage points instead of 3 percentage points – for taxpayers in the higher brackets.” [Vote 116, 5/21/01; Baltimore Sun, 05/22/01] XXXX Voted For Cutting Taxes Before Reducing National Debt. On a narrow vote of 49-50, XXXX voted for continuing with a $1.3 trillion tax cut even before the U.S. met debt reduction targets. The amendment would have delayed tax and spending proposals until debt reduction targets were met. [Vote 118, 5/21/01] XXXX Voted Against Reducing Lowest Tax Bracket to 10% and Striking All Provisions of $1.35 Trillion Tax Cut Bill. In 2001, XXXX voted against striking all the tax rate reductions in Senate’s $1.35 trillion dollar tax 258