This article about Democrat efforts to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax is pretty interesting.

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 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.

Wait a minute...rising income?  For the middle class?  That can’t possibly be true.  I mean, the Democrats have been telling us that the middle class is facing “stagnant wages” for a couple of years now.  They’ve also been telling us the economy is horrible, so how is it that this tax is impacting more people due to “rising wages?”

The article continues:

In simple terms, the AMT is sort of a flat tax with two brackets, 26 and 28 percent, and fewer deductions. Credits for dependents, medical expenses, and state and local taxes are all disallowed. Instead, taxpayers get a single big deduction, called the AMT exemption, which is set this year at $62,550 for married couples and $42,500 for singles. Taxpayers must compute their taxes both ways and pay whichever is higher.

The impact is harshest on taxpayers with annual incomes of $100,000 to $500,000.

So, this is a tax cut for the rich right?  I mean, when Bush pushed his tax cuts through which resulted in people who make less then the $44,389 national media salary paying less in taxes then they have in 30 years Democrats were all “tax cuts for the rich!”

Where is that rhetoric now?

Not that I’m opposed to ending the alternative minimum tax.  I view it as a confusing bit of tax policy nonsense and seeing it end would be no loss for this country.  I think the Republicans should join with Democrats in end it as their first gesture of bi-partisan cooperation.