In the House: AMT quick fix

The Patriot Post

By a 216-193 margin, the House passed a $78-billion bill to protect families from falling into the clutches of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) this year. Class warfare was bitterly waged during the debate as Democrats worked to offset the tax break with higher taxes for hedge-fund and private-equity investors. By liberal definition, these are Americans who can “afford” to have their income confiscated for redistribution. In the Senate, Harry Reid (D-NV) changed course to push a one-year patch with no offsets, but it looks as though that will fail. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) noted that he is uncomfortable with the offsetting tax hikes being levied so heavily on one industry. In the House, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) is offering to end the AMT entirely, but he plans to slip in a $1-trillion tax hike on corporations and financiers. After all, simply scrapping the AMT would leave the government with less revenue and liberals with less of taxpayers’ money to waste on social-engineering programs.