GOP Posturing
GOP POSTURING....Comedian David Freddoso at The Corner:
Democrats' failure to patch the AMT until after the deadline for printing IRS forms will result in tens of millions of late tax refunds. This is all about Democrats failing to get their act together and pass an AMT patch that doesn't massively raise taxes on everyone else, even though they were warned months in advance that this could happen.Has Freddoso been taking lessons from his colleague in Beirut? Three weeks ago, because of this very issue, Harry Reid announced that he wanted to fast-track AMT reform. Democrats were all willing. So why didn't it happen?
Because Republicans insisted that they would only allow the AMT tax cut to come to the floor if they were allowed to offer up amendments for four additional tax cuts at the same time. This was obvious political posturing: none of the amendments would have passed, but they would have been good campaign fodder for 2008.
Bottom line from the GOP: no campaign fodder, no AMT fix. Because campaign fodder is more important than actually helping out middle class taxpayers who might get hit with higher tax bills. Let's get our story straight here.