From WaPo:
House Democrats are trying to craft legislation that would spare those households while providing relief to many current AMT payers. Under a proposal presented last week to Democrats on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, families making less than $250,000 a year -- about 98 percent of taxpayers -- would be exempt from the tax. Those earning between $250,000 and about $500,000 would see lower AMT bills, according to Democratic sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan is not final.None of this will matter, because they are going to let the current tax cuts expire and create the biggest tax hike in history.
To make up the lost revenue, families earning more than $500,000 a year would take a much harder hit from the AMT, as well as other adjustments to the tax code, the sources said. Democrats haven't finalized that part of the proposal. But an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, suggests that the nation's wealthiest families -- less than 1 percent of all taxpayers -- would have to pay 5 to 13 percent more to offset the revenue lost by exempting the middle class from the AMT, with families who make more than $1 million paying an extra $52,000, on average, each year.
The final package could contain smaller measures, such as raising the standard deduction for married couples, to spread tax relief to 90 million families. That, Democrats said, would establish their credentials as tax-cutters while strongly contrasting with the Republican Party, whose tax cuts since 2001 have disproportionately benefited the wealthy and added billions of dollars to the federal debt.
But let us talk about the last sentence. The Bush tax cuts brought us out of a Clinton recession, OK so you want to blame bush for a recession that started before he had any budget proposal. It doesn't matter, the money coming into the federal coffers, even adjusted for inflation, is record breaking! So, the tax cuts did not cause the PROJECTED deficit which is coming down every time they take another look at it. It is deficit spending and the global war on terror. So, we can conclude the democrats are not being honest with the American people just based on that statement. If they are lying about this, what else are they lying to you about in regards to taxation?
If they truly want to be seen as tax cutters, they have to make the current tax cuts permanent first, then cut taxes further. They are going to make this small cut to some, raise taxes for others AND raise everyone's taxes by letting the current tax cuts expire.
Why don't they just cut spending? Since record money is coming into the government under the current tax system, why do they want to mess with it? Why don't they just budget themselves with the money coming in? Since the current tax system is working and letting us keep more of our money, why mess with it? the only conclusion I can come to is they do not like capitalism, they like socialism. They want to control the money and how much each person actually gets to keep. This is plainly un-American people, we were founded on the principle of capitalism, not socialism.




Comments: 17
When people, mostly democrats and liberals scream, TAX THE RICH, TAX THE RICH, I wonder if they realize that the top 5% pay 53.25% of all income taxes : The top 10% pay 64.89% The top 25% pay 82.9% The top 50% pay 96.03% The bottom 50%? They pay a paltry 3.97% of all income taxes. The top 1% is paying more than ten times the federal income taxes than the bottom 50%.
Unless of course you are a Kennedy or a Kerry, they don't pay their taxes, they have their own scams of avoiding paying their fair share.
We are now in a recovery, and have been for about 6 years, but in this recovery, the expansion is not in the middle class, it's in the Elite Class.
The rich are getting richer. The middle class, particularly the new members of the middle class are getting poorer, and the poor have fallen off the boat.
Yes, tax cuts benefit the people who have their taxes cut. Yes more money, and borrowed, or created, federal money stimulates an economy.
Expansion, through deficit is not real expansion, it is like building a house, once the structure is up it has to be paid for. Borrowed money has to be paid back. It has to be paid back from the output of the economy. If you borrow twenty from a friend, you have to earn twenty to pay it back.
I am pretty tired of giving my life to profit the wealthiest 10% of Americans, and watching them party hardy with the money while I struggle to keep a 15 year old car running so I can get to work to provide even more party favors for the wealthy.
What you and a lot of Americans seem to believe is that Voodoo economics, AKA trickle down economics works. It sure works for the occasional superstar, but it is no way to provide for the general welfare.
Kathleen, are you referring to billions of dollars misspent and wasted on the Vice President's cohorts at Halliburton?