Free Republic

...The major items include: The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers. Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or “depreciate”) equipment purchases...

No less than 313 economists, including a Nobel Laureate, signed a letter to Congress yesterday saying that letting the Bush tax cuts expire "would constitute a profound and damaging anti-stimulus that would harm our prospects for expansion in the near future. The letter was co-signed by economists Wayne Angell, a former governor with the Federal Reserve; Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith of Chapman University; Allan Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon University; Warren Coats, formerly with the International Monetary Fund; Clark Johnson with the Defense Dept., and economic professors from Duke University, Princeton University, Stanford University and the University of Chicago. The National...