Redstate

By Congressman Jeb Hensarling Posted in AMT | Congress — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

This morning, as Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel and House Democrats introduce the "Mother of all tax hikes," – which will increase taxes on hard working Americans by over $1.3 trillion –Congressman Paul Ryan, Congressman Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and Congressman John Campbell (R-CA) and I (the authors of the RSC's Taxpayer Choice Act), wrote an op/ed for the New York Post on our bill that would repeal the AMT while offering taxpayers the opportunity to become part of a 21st Century tax system that is fair, simple, efficient and, above all, accountable.

Congressman Rangel is right about one thing - the current tax system screams out for reform.  The problem is that he and other Democrats in the House want to reform it to help Washington instead of the American taxpayer.  Contrary to Democrats’ wishes, you don’t help taxpayers by raising their taxes.    The debate over repeal of the AMT is going to center around one key question – who is going to get the $841 billion that Americans will be forced to pay if it remains untouched.  Democrats believe the government is entitled to it, we believe the American people deserve to keep their own money.   

Republicans disagree with the premise that taxpayers must be forced to pay to repeal a bad policy.  We disagree with Democrats in the House who want to pick and choose certain groups of taxpayers to be penalized for Washington’s mistake.  That is why the Republican Study Committee has introduced the Taxpayer Choice Act, which will fully repeal the AMT while providing taxpayers the choice and opportunity to become part of a 21^st Century tax system that is fair, simple, efficient and, above all, accountable.

This is Nancy Pelosi’s Washington – increasing funding to expand failing Washington bureaucracies on your dime.  The American people don't really care how the Congressional Budget Office may choose to score the these different bills, or how the Joint Tax Committee may choose to score it.  And I know that people are tired of Washington budget gimmicks.   That is why we remain focused on how the American people will score it, and if their paycheck has the same purchasing power next year that it had this year and yet the tax bite is more, that is a tax increase. 

Democrats will use a lot of rhetoric about their forthcoming AMT bill, one thing is clear – they will punish one group of people through a massive tax increase. No matter how you choose to look at it, robbing Peter to pay Paul is still a huge tax increase on the American people.  Instead of Congress picking and choosing the winners and losers in the tax code, we’d like to let individual taxpayers decide what is best in their interests, and what is right for them.  It will be interesting to see how the members of the Blue Dog Coalition will react to such a massive tax increase.  It seems to me that if their bark is as big as their bite, Mr. Rangel, Speaker Pelosi and Democrat leaders might need to hire a dog catcher.  Perhaps Red State readers might call up Blue Dog Coalition member offices to find out just where they stand.