Congress Plans Tax Overhaul
The House has a plan for repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The AMT was created in 1969 and it targeted only the wealthiest families in America. They were no longer able to use tax deductions to slither out of paying any income taxes. But the AMT was never indexed for inflation, and 38 years of inflation have redefined millions of upper middle class earners as “wealthy.”
In return for repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax, the Democrats’ tax plan will reduce the tax burden for most low and middle income workers. And some corporations and investors will be paying higher rates.
Uh oh — you know what this means. Class Warfare! Redistribution of Wealth! Sapping the moral fiber of this great nation!
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) said almost all families earning less than $500,000 per year would have a "net tax reduction." He said “We have attempted to restore equity and fairness to the system.”
This was too much for Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. He said “
If this new tax law gets passed, corporations will no longer be allowed to use certain “Enron”-type accounting methods. And hedge fund managers will be limited in their use of offshore tax havens. In other words Bush will have a signing statement at the ready.
Labels: Alternative Minimum Tax, AMT, Charles Rangel, Jeb Hensarling, Jim McCrery
posted by Tom Harper @ 11:10 AM
9 Comments:
Great minds think alike. Blogwhoring feels so...dirty. Good point about the signing statements. On the miracle that this would pass - I know, I know, Miracle on Ice level of absurdity, but play along - none of this would be binding, CEOs and hedge funders - man, I fucking HATE, yes, H-A-T-E the money manipulators. WORK for a living, assholes - would still rake in the mad loot.
It's the same mentality concerning wars-a-plenty and SCHIP. Oh, $35 billion! Where can we ever find that money! By the way, here's your MOP for taking out Iran. Enjoy!
Randal: Yeah, I don't know what the wingnut reasoning is, that somebody who plays with other people's money is somehow "higher" and more noble than somebody who works for a living. If somebody makes a lot of money dabbling in stocks or hedge funds or whatever, fine. But they can pay their F#%&in' taxes just like everybody else.
The Dems have a winner with raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy. It's gonna get harder and harder for the right-wing media to twist the truth on this situation.
J. Marquis: You're right, I think the Republican soundbites about "tax and spend" and "class warfare" are losing steam.
Here's to hoping it can get passed and avoid a Bush veto.
But as you say, Bush will just issue another signing statement in crayon "'cept this law don't apply to my buddies"
In fact, rahter than vetothe bill and draw undo attention to it, Bush would be better off issueing a signing statement.
PoliShifter: Yeah, he'll probably do a signing statement on a Friday afternoon so it goes into that Friday news dump (it gets announced on the TV news on Friday night when nobody's watching and it gets written up in the Saturday newspaper that nobody reads).
Or he'll just sneak in and quietly change the wording of a paragraph or two, which would turn the law into a loose guideline instead of a law with teeth (he's done that before).
Tom, this Bush guy sounds devious, maybe we should alert our Congressfolks about his shenanigans so they can put a stop to it!
Sometimes I feel like we've stumbled upon something revolutionary, and everyone else, i.e. spineless Dems and media whores, are Cro-Magnons with fingers in their ears, unable to comprehend. Is it too early to start drinking?
If we had a real press, these signing statements would be published on the front pages every single day.
Let's see, how many more days is it before this guy's outta office?
Maybe this explains the apathy we're seeing - people realize there's not much we can do until this term is up, so we just ... wait. Problem is, while we're waiting, WWIII is being planned.
Taking impeachment off the table was the worst decision ever made - it's like a free pass to the administration to do anything it wants with impunity.
Randal: It's a good thing the Democrats are in control of Congress. If the Republicans had won the 2006 election, jeez, we'd still be quagmired in Iraq, Bush would be able to veto a health care bill for children...oh wait...no, it's not too early to start drinking.
Candace: Absolutely. All of these under-reported stories should be on the front pages. Bush's signing statements, the Bush Crime Family's huge new estate in Paraguay, the new American embassy in Iraq (the world's largest), etc. It's hard to tell which came first -- the public apathy and numbness or the fact that the "media" barely mentions any real news. Either way, these 2 things reinforce each other. The public fiddles while Rome burns.
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