The Joint Committee on Taxation released a report recently showing a smaller than expected effect of the oft delayed corporate tax bill, HR 4520. According to the report, more than 95% of manufacturing firms will receive only from zero to $50,000 in benefits. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) used the opportunity to urge colleagues to alter the bill to include a tax credit for health insurance that more firms could claim.

The manufacturing tax credit had been the single element of both bills expected to survive easily through the process. The JCT's report complicates this, as does the inability of both sides to get to conference. The administration has been pushing against the targeted tax proposal in favor of an approach that would benefit all sectors rather than just the manufacturing area.

Each month of delay results in an increase in European Union trade sanctions by an additional percentage point on a variety of U.S. products. The sanctions have already risen to 10 percentage points at the beginning of the month of August.