1. tfk
  2. Misreporting tax policy

Misreporting tax policy

By tfk on December 19, 2007.

The New York Times reports: Congress Votes to Spare Millions From Alternative Tax:

By 352 to 64, the House voted to shield about 21 million Americans from being hit by the alternative minimum tax.

No, they didn't. But it takes until the 8th paragraph to find that out:

House Democrats angrily approved the bill after giving in to demands by Congressional Republicans and President Bush that the tax cut not be offset by raising other taxes. Democrats started out the year by pledging to pay for the $50 billion cost of the A.M.T. fix with cuts in spending or increases in taxes elsewhere. The Democrats repeatedly tried to get Senate Republicans to back a plan that would have paid for the cut by imposing new taxes, particularly on wealthy hedge fund managers. But the Republicans refused, leaving Democrats little choice but to break their promise. By not offsetting the cost, the national debt will increase by $50 billion.

All Congress did was shift the tax burden. Some people will pay less in taxes next year, but some people will pay more in taxes at some point in order to make up for that. The Democrats tried to do the responsible thing and make it clear who had to pay that cost, while the Republicans apparently preferred to believe that the tax fairy would come and balance the budget for them.

The only way to actually spare millions from the effect of this tax would have been to find some offsets for changes in tax revenue. That means budget cuts or shifting the tax burden elsewhere. Congress shifted it to future generations, who will pay it with interest. To China.

Tags
Policy and Politics

More like this

Our Budget Boondoggle
Perusing the Congressional Budge Office website, I came across some fascinating numbers from the Federal budget. For instance, where does Federal revenue primarily come from? Let's look at the historical budget numbers. In 2003, personal income taxes provided 44.5% of all revenues; in 2000 it was…
Drum Misses the Point on Social Security
Kevin Drum (formerly CalPundit) of the Washington Monthly, is usually a pretty reliable source, but in this post I think he misses the point almost entirely. He is arguing that the "Social Security Trust Fund" is not an IOU even though Congress steals it to make the deficit appear smaller, and the…
Only 109 Reasons?
It's election time here in the US and we need a new Congress -- here's why: 1. Congress set a record for the fewest number of days worked -- 218 between the House and Senate combined. [Link] 2. The Senate voted down a measure that urged the administration to start a phased redeployment of U.S.…
This is Fiscal Responsibility?
Am I the only one who finds press reports like this amusingly ridiculous? President Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget plan Monday that seeks deep spending cuts across a wide swath of government from reducing subsidies paid to the nation's farmers, cutting health care payments for poor…