VIDEO: Democrats’ Mismanagement Threatens a Middle Class Tax Grab
November 15th, 2007 - Washington, D.C. –Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican Whip Trent Lott, Conference Chairman Jon Kyl, Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee Charles Grassley, and Senator Gordon Smith (R.-Ore.) held a press conference Wednesday urging immediate action to reform the AMT before Thanksgiving.
“Just a little history: this tax goes back to 1969. It was put in place to make sure that super-wealthy would pay this Alterative Minimum Tax,” said Senator Lott. “Over the years because it was not indexed it’s been creeping up, creeping up. It doesn’t just effect wealthy people now, it effects a lot of middle-income Americans.”
Senator Grassley criticized the absurdity of House Democrats recent proposal to replace the massive tax hike of the AMT with another tax increase to offset it.
“How can these same people propose to prevent an AMT tax increase on 23 million families, only if a non-related tax increase goes into effect?”
Senator Kyl added, “In fact, many of the taxpayers who would get the relief in one pocket, are going to be the same taxpayers that have to take money out of the other pocket to pay for that relief.”
Senator Smith criticized congressional Democrats’ unwillingness to address the issue. “When we were in charge, we always did—at the minimum—a patch.”
Leader McConnell echoed that frustration, and remarking on the consequence of Democrats’ mismanagement, said, “This delay has now reached the point where it will not be cost-free to a significant number of taxpayers in our country. We should have gotten this job done earlier.”
Background
Secretary Paulsen and the IRS have warned that Congress must act immediately to prevent this tax increase on middle-income families. The IRS recently sent a letter to Congress stating that unless the problem of the AMT is fixed before the Thanksgiving break, the tax returns of 50 million taxpayers, and $75 billion in tax refunds will be delayed.
