James Hill: “Madam Speaker, we have a lot of Blue Dogs here this evening to talk about this issue because Blue Dogs feel very…”

“Madam Speaker, we have a lot of Blue Dogs here this evening to talk about this issue because Blue Dogs feel very passionate about PAYGO rules and our national debt. The national debt exceeds over $9 trillion. One of the largest expenditures in our Nation's budget, second or third only to military spending, is the interest that we pay on that national debt. Now, we are at a critical time because now we are at a stage of the legislative process where the rubber meets the road. As has already been mentioned here, there is a large issue looming next year for millions of Americans, and that issue is the alternative minimum tax. The alternative minimum tax was passed many years ago with the idea that only the wealthy who didn't pay any income taxes ought not to have that advantage, and so the alternative minimum tax was put in place. Little did we know when it was passed many years ago that we would advance up to 2007, which is the present time, and we would find that next year when people have to pay their income taxes, they will learn that many middle-class Americans will have to pay this tax as well. So not only the wealthy will have to pay the alternative minimum tax but also many millions of middle-class people will have to pay the AMT. We need to fix that. And the Blue Dogs are committed to making sure that we provide tax relief for those millions of middle-class Americans who are going to be hit with this tax next year.”