WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation extending reduced tax rates for investment income that Republican backers said were needed to maintain U.S. economic growth.

The House voted 234-197 to extend for two years a 15 percent tax rate for capital gains and dividends. The reduced investment tax rates were the centerpiece of President George W. Bush's 2003 tax cut and without congressional action they will expire at the end of 2008. Rates will go back to 20 percent for capital gains and regular income rates for dividends.

The package passed by the House would reduce federal revenues by about $56 billion over five years and Democrats complained that the Republican majority was increasing the deficit and cutting spending for poor children, education and other social programs in order to give tax cuts to the rich.

The bill is part of a broader effort by the Republican-controlled Congress to cut spending and extend Bush's tax cuts. The Senate last month approved its version of tax cut legislation, omitting provisions for capital gains and dividends. The two sides will have to work out their differences before sending legislation to Bush for his signature.

Commentary:
At some point we have to question the sanity of the entire republican party and especially people who vote for republicans after they pass their debt to the next generation.

We know republicans in congress don't support this war. If they did they'd raise taxes to pay for it. But, why make the next generation pay for tax cuts that go to the wealthy and the super wealthy in this generation? Are republicans this stupid?

When a republican can tell us how we're going to pay back the $2.4 trillion they've borrowed since Bush became president, then we'll have a republican leader. Until then every republican should be ignored (on every issue - god knows they've screwed up our foreign policy beyond repair). In the mean time, let's look for a democrat leader - someone who's not afraid of paying for what we spend.

If you're still not sure about this issue, look at it this way. Short term growth is short term. It lasts a few years tops. But debt lasts for generations. Put another way, republicans believe we have a right to pass mountains of debt (tax increases) to the next generation in exchange for some short-term growth.

Here are some numbers. Prior to the Reagan tax cut we had less than one trillion dollars of debt. In eight years Reagan increased our debt by $1.6 trillion (or more than all previous presidents combined). In the 25 years since the Reagan tax cut we've created $7.1 trillion of new debt or $8.1 trillion. And we can't pay back a single penny of that debt. It keeps growing and growing. Tax cuts are the problem and anyone who supports tthem is either a fool or too immoral to be in public office.