Tax 'em Till They Turn Red

The Bush tax panel's plan to screw Democrats.
By Daniel Gross
Posted Monday, Oct. 31, 2005, at 5:02 PM ET

The president's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform will present its proposals tomorrow, and the bipartisan commission seems to have reached the following conclusion about how to improve revenue collection: Screw the blue states.

In the name of simplification and fairness, the panel is proposing to do away with the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax, a pernicious levy that effectively increases taxes on millions of people each year by robbing them of some deductions for property taxes and state and local income taxes. According to the Treasury Department, some 4 million Americans will pay the tax in 2005. If Congress doesn't extend a law that limits the reach of the AMT, it could hit 21 million people next year. Abolishing the AMT would seem to be good news for blue-staters, since it falls largely on people who live in Democrat-dominated areas.