The Courant today has a story a story on the latest political antics surrounding AMT relief:
House members voted Friday to shield more than 23 million Americans from a tax increase this year under the alternative minimum tax - and hit up wealthy managers of investment firms such as private equity and hedge funds to pay for it.[...]
The debate now shifts to the Senate, where the tax increase is extremely controversial, including among some Democrats who have received big campaign donations from investors who would face higher taxes under the plan. The Bush administration has said it would veto a tax increase.
Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service has warned that action on the alternative minimum tax is required soon to prevent disruptions for 2007 taxpayers.
It’s good that Congress seems to be dead-set on ensuring that any revenue loss is offset somehow. However, I suppose it’s too much to hope that the idea of reducing spending would ever cross a congresscritter’s mind.
You’d think that with 2008 shaping up to be a nasty election year, elected officials would be bending over backwards to find a way to avoid angering millions of upper-middle-class taxpayers.
I suppose that, for them, it’s sufficient to gamble on being thankful that November is so far away from April.