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Strengthening the Economy: Jobs and Economic Growth
Economy and Budget Press Briefing Excerpts

Excerpts from Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer, October 16, 2002 (Full transcript)

QUESTION: House Republicans this morning appear to be in the process of changing one of the tax bills that was up for a floor vote dealing with military tax relief. They've changed the name of it to Economic Growth and Pension Security, or something to that effect. Would the White House approve using a military tax relief bill as a vehicle to add on much broader tax measures, such as pension reform, corporate inversion moratorium, stock incentives?

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, the White House doesn't weigh in on the procedural machinations of the House to that degree. And the Rules Committee has the authority it does, and it's really not the role of the White House to dive into that level of the House procedural matters. The House Ways and Means Committee has passed legislation dealing with pension protections for people and allowing elderly Americans, particularly, to withdraw money from their IRAs at a later date. The Ways and Means Committee also passed legislation that would increase the amount of money that you can deduct as a capital loss from its existing level of $3,000 up to, I think it's $8,250. And if those were given to the President, the President would sign those measures. It remains to be seen exactly what's going to make it onto the House floor. This is still something that's under discussion within the House and they haven't settled on it yet.