The U.S. House of Representatives will likely vote tomorrow to continue about 50 expiring tax incentives known as “tax extenders.” It must do so each year to prevent significant tax increases for some taxpayers. This year, however, the House will likely pass increases in other taxes to offset the supposed cost of the tax extenders. This is nothing more than Congress hiding behind the guise of fiscal discipline as an excuse to raise taxes year after year. Continuing the tax extenders is not a tax cut. It is the prevention …
The House is set to vote today on H.R. 6275, a bill that trades temporary relief for permanent pain. According to a Republican Study Committee report, without a patch, the AMT will impose a $61.52 billion tax bill on middle-class Americans over the next 11 years. This is a tax burden the original AMT bill never intended nor is it revenue the government should feel entitled to receive. Rather than being a tax relief bill, H.R. 6275 is a tax grab. Under a guise of patching the AMT (temporarily), it …
It’s that time of year again. Congress is facing its annual AMT predicament, and once again Americans must suffer through the same worn out debate thanks to House Democrats. The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) is a classic example of a broken Congress. The AMT, created in 1969 to prevent the wealthiest 155 Americans from avoiding taxes completely, was never indexed to inflation and now inadvertently impacts millions of Americans each year. Oddly enough, eliminating this tax is one policy Democrats and Republicans actually agree on. But elimination is not in …
The Senate budget resolution, which will be voted on later this week, is quite similar to the House budget resolution, which the Heritage Foundation analyzed yesterday. Heritage Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Brian Riedl notes: “While the House budget would raise taxes by $1.265 trillion over five years, and $3.911 trillion over the decade, the Senate tax hikes come to $1.207 trillion and $3.853 trillion, respectively. The Senate’s tax hike of $3,086 per household annually is just below the House’s $3,135 per household tax increase.” Both resolutions would allow all the …
Rep. Baron Hill, a Blue Dog Democrat from Indiana, voiced concern today about the rush for Congress to pass an economic stimulus plan. During the question-and-answer portion of this morning’s hearing before the Joint Economic Committee, Hill noted that Democrats violated PAYGO rules when they passed a one-year freeze for the Alternative Minimum Tax. Hill said he feared the same would be true with the stimulus. Hill complained about how much a stimulus package might add to the budget deficit and suggested a short-term fix might not be best for …
