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The bill's $10 billion cost will be offset by an extension of customs fees.

Once again smoke and mirrors strike. They give with one hand while taking with another.

Custom fees are embedded in the price of goods received as imports. Tariffs and excises, for the most part, increase the prices of goods. Guess who buys the most imported (e.g. discount) goods?

http://www.cbpp.org/taxday98.htm

CBO Estimates of Effective Federal Tax Rates for 1998
Families Ranked by Income Quintile	Individual Income Tax	Social Insurance Taxes	Corporate Income Tax	Excise & Tariff Tax	Total Federal Taxes
Lowest	-6.9%	7.8%	0.5%	2.8%	4.2%
Second	1.7%	9.9%	0.9%	1.6%	14.2%
Third	6.3%	10.8%	1.4%	1.2%	19.7%
Fourth	9.0%	11.3%	1.4%	1.0%	22.7%
Highest	16.2%	8.0%	4.6%	0.5%	29.3%

Top 10%	18.0%	6.7%	5.8%	0.4%	30.8%
Top 5%	19.7%	5.3%	7.0%	0.3%	32.3%
Top 1%	23.0%	3.0%	9.5%	0.2%	35.7%

Average for all families	11.2%	9.3%	3.0%	0.9%	24.4%
Source: Congressional Budget Office, May 15, 1997. Notes: Pre-tax family income is the sum of wages, salaries, self-employment income, rents, taxable and non-taxable interest, dividends, realized capital gains, and all cash transfer payments. Income also includes the employer share of Social Security and federal unemployment insurance payroll taxes, and the corporate income tax. For purposes of ranking by adjusted family income (AFI), income for each family is divided by the poverty threshold for a family of that size. Quintiles contain equal numbers of people. Families with zero or negative income are excluded from the lowest income category but included in the total. Individual income taxes are distributed directly to families paying those taxes. Payroll taxes are distributed to families paying those taxes directly or indirectly through their employers. Federal excise taxes are distributed to families according to their consumption of the taxed good or service. Corporate income taxes are distributed to families according to their share of capital income.

A NEGATIVE income tax?

An intersting thing to note about your table is that those receiving the tax credit do in fact pay taxes. They may not be paying income taxes, but they are paying federal taxes. This counters, in part, the argument that we shouldn't give the benefits of the credit to those that pay no income tax.

It's ALL smoke and mirrors, geez.

Unless the annual budget decreases in real numbers, this means little to nothing. The people who get tax "cuts" will end up paying more in fees and/or purchases. If business and corporate taxes go up, they pass on the higher taxes to the consumer. If the government gives some a "tax cut" they raise taxes on others and raise fees in other places.

But I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. I'm just venting.