
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 12, 1995                   TAG: 9504180044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A16   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON SIGNS BILL ALLOWING HEALTH INSURANCE DEDUCTION

With tax returns due in less than a week, President Clinton signed legislation Tuesday giving 3.2 million self-employed people the right to deduct part of the cost of health insurance.

But he did so reluctantly, complaining because Congress included in the bill a special exception handing media mogul Rupert Murdoch a $63 million tax break.

Clinton also complained that Congress failed to use the bill to close a loophole enabling billionaires to avoid their federal tax responsibility by renouncing their citizenship.

The president said he could have dealt with the Murdoch situation had Congress given him line-item veto authority.

But as matters stand, Clinton said, the interests of self-employed business people and farmers who generally pay high health insurance premiums overrode his objections to the Murdoch break.

``I did it because tax day is April 17, and these people are getting their records ready, and there are millions of them, and they are entitled to this deduction; it was wrong for it ever to expire in the first place,'' he said.

The new law permits some 3.2 million people to claim a 25 percent deduction for health insurance premiums they paid in 1994. The benefit will increase permanently to 30 percent this year.

Clinton said he favors increasing the health insurance deduction to 100 percent.

``Increasing the amount of the deduction will make health insurance more affordable for self-employed small-business people who are today paying some of the highest insurance premiums in the nation,'' he said.

But the president voiced regret that the bill also repeals current tax treatment of the sale or exchange of radio and television stations and cable television systems to minority-owned businesses. However, the legislation specifically says repeal will not affect the previously negotiated Murdoch deal.

Murdoch has a contract to sell Atlanta station WATL-TV for $150 million to Qwest Inc., which is 55 percent owned by minorities, including Quincy Jones, Geraldo Rivera and former pro football star Willie Davis, and 45 percent owned by the Tribune Co.

by CNB