Article: Clinton strikes 3 budget, tax items Historic use of narrow veto power likely to face challenge in court; What was vetoed Following is a summary of the three provisions deleted from tax and spending bills by President Clinton on Monday: Farmers' cooperatives:The provision would have allowed investors to defer capital-gains taxes on sales of farm product refiners and food processing companies, such as canneries, to farmer-owned cooperatives. Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation estimated its cost at $84 million over five years; the Treasury Department put it at $98 million. International finance:The provision would have allowed U.S.-based insurance companies, banks and investment firms to defer taxes on "active financing income" from overseas operations, such as interest on loans made abroad. The joint tax committee said the provision would cost $94 million over five years, but the Treasury Department's estimate was $317 million. New York hospitals and Medicaid:The provision would have saved the State of New York about $200 million by shielding it from a Health and Human Services Department ruling that said the state might have unfairly taxed some hospitals to raise money for Medicaid payments.

President Clinton, exercising a power that presidents have coveted for more than a century, used his new line-item veto authority Monday to strike down three items in the tax and spending bills he signed into law last week.

Clinton said his vetoes would "ensure that national interests prevail over narrow interests" by eliminating what he called "unjustifiable or wasteful" spending and tax breaks that would cost an estimated $615 million over five years.

But his action drew sharp protests from those it affected, as well as from Republicans who said it violated the spirit of the bipartisan budget accord celebrated at a White House signing ceremony last week. The line-item veto law, which ...

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