December 7, 2007

Still Ignoring Option B

The Washington Post reports on the anguish of the Democrats in fixing the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), one of the dumbest ongoing fiscal issues over the last several years. Why the anguish? Democrats can't find another tax to replace the AMT revenue this year.

The Democrats in this article act as though they have only one choice in dealing with the AMT, which is to play a shell game and find another way to tax Americans. Even the Republicans in the article, gleeful over forcing Democrats to violate Paygo, seem to forget that other options exist for fiscal responsibility.

At Heading Right, I remind Congress that the budget "hole" supposedly blown by the AMT fix amounts to a whopping 1.67% of the federal spending plan for next year. Congressional anguish over fixing the ludicrously broken AMT apparently has clouded their minds so much that they've forgotten about the option to reduce spending 1.67% instead of jacking up taxes by a much larger percentage.

UPDATE: Jazz wonders why no one thinks to reduce spending, either -- and why the GOP seems so gleeful at the violation of Paygo.

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