The Hill reports:
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) hinted Tuesday that Congress may not be able to stop a big tax increase from hitting 23 million Americans.
Hoyer, pressed on whether Congress would resolve disputes over the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), said, "Maybe."
His remark came as a surprise, since it has widely been assumed that Democrats will give up their effort to "pay for" the AMT patch and go with the Senate plan to load the cost onto the deficit.
Hoyer's comments may be nothing more than a warning to his fellow Democrats. It's long been assumed that the House would eventually yield and approve the AMT fix that passed the Senate. This public comment from Hoyer may be no more than a signal to House Democrats that the stubbornness of the Blue Dogs may spur a huge tax increase that will be laid solely at the feet of the Democrats.
The Alternative Minimum Tax will raise taxes about $51 billion in 2008, if it is not 'fixed.' The crux of the argument comes down to this: Republicans oppose a tax increase to 'pay' for the AMT fix because the AMT has only expanded due to an error when it was created. Republicans and Democrats universally agree that it was never meant to hit the millions of taxpayer it is slated to affect next year. And if the Treasury never intended or expected to collect the money, why do Democrats consider the revenue to be 'lost?'
In effect, the question is whom to hold harmless: the taxpayers or the treasury.
Congressional Democrats accuse Republicans of being fiscally irresponsible, but their duplicity in the debate is exposed when you consider one thing: the AMT fix passed by House Democrats provides relief from the tax for one year. The tax increases they've approved to pay for it are permanent.
What do Congressional Democrats intend to do about the AMT next year and beyond, when Congress' Joint Tax Committee projects the AMT to 'cost' more than $100 billion annually? Will Congress add new, permanent tax increases every year, just to 'pay for' foregone tax increase?
House leaders need to move promptly to pass the Senate's AMT fix--which passed that body by a vote of 88-5. If House Democrats reject this bipartisan approach and insist on using the AMT as a pretext to raise taxes by tens of billions of dollars annually, they'll pay for it at the polls.
