Republican leaders opposed on the measure on the grounds it effectively would impose an unfair tax increase on many companies.
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the
Senate Finance Committee, said that while “on the surface, this proposal may sound reasonable,” it was misleading and would lead to an “extraordinary deviation from current tax policy. There has always been a [tax] deduction allowed for a business’s ordinary and necessary expenses — and expenses associated with moving have always been regarded as deductible business expenses,”
Mr. Hatch said Thursday. “As substantive tax policy goes, this proposal is a joke.”
The bill died on a mostly partisan 56-42 vote, falling four short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. Four Republicans supported the measure:
Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts,
Dean Heller of Nevada, and
Susan M. Collins and
Olympia J. Snowe of Maine. No Democrats opposed it. The bill was one of several “jobs bills” and tax measures
Senate Democrats have floated this month, including a measure to extend expiring Bush-era tax cuts only for households making less than $250,000 a year.
While few if any of their proposals have a realistic chance of becoming law in the current political climate,
Democrats are using Republican opposition to portray the party as beholden to big business and corporate money ahead of the November elections.
