GOP makes offer on tax relief deal

WASHINGTON, July 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Republicans have made a pitch to the majority Democrats for a compromise on a tax-relief package, The Hill reported Thursday.

The Capitol Hill newspaper said the proposal would agree to a one-year patch on the unpopular Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT, in exchange for cuts in domestic spending in the 2009 budget.

"If agreed to, extension of expiring tax relief, including extension of the AMT patch and expiring energy tax incentives, could be accomplished in a way that achieves your stated goal of being deficit-neutral but without the unstated and unwarranted result of increasing the size of the federal government," Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a letter sent Thursday to Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

There was no immediate word from the Democrats on whether or not the proposal would be accepted.

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