The GOP has spent the past six years providing tax cuts for the uber-rich. Meanwhile, more and more middle-class Americans have been slammed by the alternative minimum tax (AMT). Because the AMT didn't affect their constituents, Republicans never fixed it. Democrats are making it a top priority:
Democratic leaders this week vowed to make the alternative minimum tax a centerpiece of next year's budget debate, saying the levy threatens to unfairly increase tax bills for millions of middle-class families by the end of the decade.The AMT is a tax increase the GOP was willing to foist on middle class Americans. But there's a new sheriff in town. Finally.
The complex and expensive tax was designed to prevent the super-rich from using deductions, credits and other shelters to avoid paying the Internal Revenue Service. But because of rising incomes, the tax is expected to expand to more than 30 million taxpayers in 2010 from 3.8 million mostly well-off households in 2006.
