Earlier it was reported that Steny Hoyer said that Congress may not be able to pass the AMT patch that would hit 23 million Americans with higher taxes, reported by The Hill.
His remark came as a surprise, since it has widely been assumed that Democrats will give up their effort to “pay for” the AMT patch and go with the Senate plan to load the cost onto the deficit.
Hoyer’s statement came the morning after nearly 30 conservative Blue Dog Democrats signaled their discontent with the Senate AMT plan by voting with Republicans against an adjournment resolution.
Hoyer was asked about efforts to resolve the dispute. He said he had come to the 11 a.m. briefing directly from the meeting to resolve the impasse and did not know the “state of play on AMT.”
“There’s no deal” with the Blue Dogs, he said.
A few hours later we see another article from CQ Politics that says Charlie Rangel says that he cares more about “patching” the alternative minimum tax than following the pay-as-you-go budget rule, signaling an end to a months-long standoff over a year-end tax bill.
The New York Democrat’s statement to reporters paved the way for the House to take up a Senate-passed bill that would prevent the AMT from hitting as many as 25 million taxpayers in 2007, up from 4 million last year.
The Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative House Democrats, has vowed to vote against any bill without offsets. But Rangel, who had backed their position until now, said, “I would rather get the people not hit by the AMT, then come back again” to resurrect pay-as-you-go rules on future bills.
Note to the Blue Dogs: You can reduce spending to offset the cost, there is no need to raise anyones taxes or take take cuts from anyone either.
By the way, as I mentioned here, according to the letter that the Department of Treasury sent to Congress (read it), in late October, because of their bickering and insistence on taxes taxes taxes instead reducing spending as an offset, millions of people may still not be getting their refunds without a delay.
....the enactment of a patch beyond early November could also significantly delay processing of the taxpayers' (25 million) returns and payments of any refunds.
Don Surber shows how easily this could have been done without risking the delay to millions of taxpayers.
So cut $50 billion out of the $2.9 Trillion budget.
That is a trim of a mere 1.7%.
This could be done with an across-the-board cut of all spending.
Congressmen who make just under $170,000 a year could take a one-time pay cut of $2,931.04 just to show that they are on the side of fiscal responsibility.
Hell, Nancy Pelosi spends 5 times that on flowers every year. Well, not out of her pocket, mind you, but out of the House speaker’s budget, which is paid for by taxpayers.
Morons, the lot of them.
Steny Hoyer, meet Charlie Rangel, perhaps you two should communicate before making further fools of yourself in the news.
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