Posted on 11/27/2006 7:49:20 AM PST by SmithL
Washington -- After six years of railing against Republican tax cuts for the rich and fiscal irresponsibility, Democrats will find themselves come January under enormous pressure to pass a hugely expensive tax cut -- without any way to make up the revenue.
The alternative minimum tax, which slaps an extra income tax on many higher-income people, has become a political monster for Democrats, threatening to clobber prosperous professionals in such Democratic strongholds as California and New York.
The tax was installed by Democrats in 1969 to make people with high incomes pay their fare share. However, because the rate was never adjusted for inflation, many more people each year become subject to the tax. Congress has made temporary fixes by approving short-term increases in the exemption amounts, but Republicans have resisted a long-term fix because it would mainly help Democrats. Nineteen of the senators representing voters in states with the highest per capita alternative tax next year are Democrats.
A permanent solution could cost a trillion dollars over 10 years, but without one, the extra tax will start reaching deep into the middle class.
There are 3.5 million paying the tax this year, rising to 23 million next year, and 50 million in 10 years.
"That's a very, very cold shower to have to deal with the moment you take over," Mike Franc, head of government relations for the conservative Heritage Foundation, said of the incoming Democratic majority.
"What that could effectively do is crowd out almost all the rest of their agenda," he said.
Clearly, the tax will be an early test of Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, who has pledged as a first order of business to impose a straitjacket on the budget to halt years of GOP deficit spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Right. A tax cut is the last thing on the Democrats agenda, especially one aimed at the upper middle class.
Since when has what is good for America gotten in the way of the far-left San Fransicko Democrat agenda?
Message to Democrats: You broke it. You fix it.
remind me again why the "rich" should have an extra tax ?
There is no dilemma for democrats. They will meet, hold hearings, confer and then bite their lips and announce that they did everything they could to pass that tax cut. They really wanted to pass it. Really really really, but just couldn't.
But the news won't be all bad, the dems will announce that they did manage to raise the minimum wage to $17.00/hr and will be holding a fresh round of hearings on the Cheyney Energy commission aimed at ending our dependence on foreign oil by insuring that we can't drill off our own coasts (where China is drilling) and can't have nuclear energy. Instead, a new program will be instituted to use humans as batteries just like in the Matrix!!!! (Meanwhile, the Republicans will be busy learning a lesson).
Money that isn't spent is money saved, not a cost.
Quote: "remind me again why the "rich" should have an extra tax ?"
Remind me a again, what is the definition of "rich." They go around spouting about "tax cuts for the rich" but glance over what they mean by that. For far too long we have allowed the dems to shift the definitions to their liking. You know, just like they are really "moderates." Liberal=moderate or interrogation(of any kind)=torture. Now, its poor=middle class; middle class=rich, because that is exactly who is bearing the tax burden in this country. Anyone making enough of a living to raise a family or start a business is getting hit, especially by the AMT.
Tax cuts for the rich!?!? Sorry, the AMT is about to eat up tax cuts for everyone and the dems don't intend to do a damn thing about it.
In this case it's a cost because our estemed gov't will never pass complementary spending reductions to offset the tax reduction.
Silly you.
The Dems' definition of rich: If you draw a paycheck...
It hits middle and higher-income folks in high tax states the hardest. That's why it's a dilemma for the Dems. Their traditional constituency is most affected by the AMT.
If the federal code continues to allow deductions for things like state income taxes and property taxes, NY and CA and MA and so on are hit worse than, say, MS or MT.
A permanent solution could cost a trillion dollars over 10 years,
WRONG Carolyn. Money the gubmint doesn't get, but wants, is not a "cost".
Cost: NounMaybe you mean "lose", huh Carolyn, i.e.: the gubmint would 'lose' a trillion dollars over 10 years...
An amount paid or required in payment for a purchase; a price.
The expenditure of something, such as time or labor
You obviously haven't spent enough time hanging around Democratic big-government fetishists. They have a positively feudalistic view of society in which all income generated by anyone belongs to the state.
Therefore, they use the term "tax expenditure" to indicate any policy by which you are allowed to keep anything that you produced by the sweat of your own brow. To them, a 99% tax rate is a 1% "tax expenditure". I wish I was making this up, but I am not.
Any politician or bureaucrat who uses the term "tax expenditure" deserves a bullet between the eyes.
-ccm
Amen.
And I 'like' their use of the word "investment" too: We need to 'invest' more in schools, 'invest' more in social programs, 'invest' more in ... blah blah blah.
First I grab my wallet, then I 'want to' go for my gun.
Which reminds me. I need to 'invest' in more ammo this week, along with 'investing' in another rifle (SKS).
;-)
I want to vomit every time I read about a tax cut "costing" money. Why do I never read about spending costing defitcits. Because overspending causes deficits, not tax cuts. Clearly lib rags have no clue about incentives and wealth expansion as the result of tax cuts.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
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