Senate GOP coordinates AMT attack

[rodeodance]

Source: the hill


Senate GOP coordinates AMT attack

By Jessica Holzer | Posted: 11/10/07 3:03 p.m.
November 10, 2007

Senate Republicans will launch a coordinated campaign next week attacking Democrats for dithering on legislation to shield millions of middle-class families from an unexpected tax hike and conveying stiff GOP resistance to raising taxes to pay for the relief, Senate GOP aides said.

Republicans already began the assault on Friday, hours before House Democrats approved legislation to stave off the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) for one year, voting to pay for the relief partly by raising taxes on investment managers in the private equity, hedge fund and real estate industries. The Senate has not yet acted to patch the AMT.

“The last thing the American people need right now is a massive tax increase, which would be a dangerous jolt to our economy,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement. “Congress must pass a responsible fix to this middle class tax hike, the AMT; a fix that doesn’t replace one massive tax increase on Americans with another.”

Republicans plan to seize on a recent statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to embarrass Democrats for not acting more quickly on the AMT, according to one GOP Senate aide.




Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/senate-gop-coordinates-amt-attack-2007-11-10.html

[papau]

1. massive tax increase" on the 15% tax rate on the millions given hedge fund folks -for no AMT -sounds

fair to me.

Indeed - if that "massive tax increase" is not passed in the Senate, there will be hell to pay since they will have made me angry - and a lot of those in Congress are even older and more out of shape than I am! :-)

Back in the real world, I do believe that if the Democrats do not raise the hedge fund operators 15% tax rate on "carried interest" (which is the profit of the firm), they will make it hard to sell that they are any different from the GOP.

[annabanana]

2. Investment managers

in the private equity, hedge fund and real estate industries can MORE than afford to pony up a nickle or two to offset the AMT for millions of middle class Americans.

Are Mitch McConnell constituents paying attention or are they fast asleep?

[IndianaGreen]

3. AMT will hit a family of 4 with a combined income of $66,000

and we have Reid postponing Congressional action and missing the IRS deadline to change their tax forms.

[WCGreen]

4. All the Dem's have to do is spell it out in plain english and let the

voters decide...

[Hubert Flottz]

5. If Mitch said it you can bet it was a damned lie!

What an asshole!

[benld74]

6. We already had 2 dangerous jolts, 2000 and 2004 !

[maseman]

7. Let me ask

Do the general public really know or care about these attack ads? I mean I suppose a few might hear "tax increase" but it sees like this is the ONLY platform for the Repukes. I don't think anyone is listening to them.

[leaninglib]

8. If they fail to act, they will pay dearly.

Eliminate the damn thing and be done with it! How hard can it be?

[Toots]

9. Weren't the Republicans saying exactly the same thing when Clinton introduced his first budget?

One by one they stood on the floor of either the House or the Senate and said how devastated the country would become if Clinton's budget were to be passed. They then voted in "lockstep" against it and in fact the vote was tied in the Senate and Al Gore had to cast the tie breaking vote, America went on to experience the greatest economic expansion in history. Bush* no sooner sat down in the Oval Office when he started reversing everything Clinton. We all witnessed what happened to America. It experienced the greatest economic turn around in history. These people have no credibility, zero, none, zilch and they need to be told right to their face that this is a fact. They don't have a single clue how to govern for the interests of the American people.