AMT: A tax increase called a tax cut

Complements to the Charleston Daily Mail for an excellent summary of the problem with the AMT:The alternative minimum tax was imposed by a Democratic Congress 38 years ago to force 155 individuals to pay income taxes. Each made more than $200,000 -- 20 were millionaires -- but each paid zero federal income taxes, thanks to tax deductions and credits inserted into the tax code by Congress. That alternative minimum tax to snag 155 individuals has grown into a tax that burdens 21 million Americans, most of whom do not make $200,000 a year in today's dollars, let alone in 1969 dollars. It is set to hit people who make as little as $50,000 a year.

Those 21 million will be socked by $50.6 billion in taxes next year. The Democratic Congress proposes to relieve their burden by closing "loopholes" to collect $78.3 billion more from taxpayers. . . . House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) is planning for a trillion-dollar tax hike in 2009. The non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation took a look at Rangel's soak-the-rich tax increase and discovered that as early as 2011, 94 million families earning as little as $20,000 a year will see a tax increase. . . .

There are other ways to "pay" for the elimination of the AMT. Waste in government and pork-barrel projects would be a good place to start. . . . [Read More] As for stopping pork, we could begin with Rangle's pork. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is hoping to steer $2 million to a building project at the City College of New York that will house -- not one, not two, but three construction projects that will bear his name. Yes, talk about gaudy, there is the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service, the Rangel Conference Center, and the Charles Rangel Library which will hold all of his not so important papers and will include a “well-furnished office” for Charlie Bro.

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Tags: alternative minimum tax, AMT, Charlie Rangel, Congressional Pork, income tax, increased taxes, pork-barrel spenders To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!