No deal expected on corporate taxes

WASHINGTON, Feb. 29 (UPI) -- An economic adviser to the Bush administration, Keith Hennessy, said the chances of a U.S. corporate tax break this year appeared to be "very low."

Hennessy, the director of the National Economic Council, did not explain his comment, which was issued in response to a question at a breakfast discussion hosted by The Christian Science Monitor, The Hill newspaper reported.

"That's disappointing," said a spokesman for House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

Rangel has been negotiating with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to change the corporate tax structure.

Rangel's plan calls for eliminating tax breaks while lowering the tax rate. In a bill introduced last fall, Rangel included lowering the corporate tax from 35 percent to 30.5 percent, which Republicans criticized as too small a cut, the paper reported.

In a broad sense, Rangel said he was in alignment with Paulson, who issued a report in December which included the concept of lowing the corporate tax rate while closing off some exemptions.

But, "there are no policy recommendations in this study," a spokesman for Paulson's office said.