Chuck Grassley: “Next week, when the President's budget comes out, there is going to be an awful lot of discussion about the alternative…”

“Next week, when the President's budget comes out, there is going to be an awful lot of discussion about the alternative minimum tax. I am trying to preempt--in a sense counter--what I think are old arguments that are going to be repeated about that issue. They are going to be coming from leftwing think tanks, and maybe the Democratic leadership in the Congress will pick up on it. For sure, the east coast media, who tend to be sympathetic to the views of these political organizations, is going to be loudly speaking about it. I don't find anything wrong with it being discussed, but I am going to make sure it is discussed in an intellectually honest manner. The charge is going to be made that the alternative minimum tax problem we face now is a direct result of the bipartisan--I emphasize bipartisan--tax relief legislation that was enacted in 2001 and 2003, which, by the way, Chairman Greenspan has said, both before he left the Fed as well as a private citizen, that these tax relief packages we passed back then are the basis for the economy going very smoothly in the last 3 or 4 years, creating 7.2 million jobs. If that is the argument they are going to make--and I will bet you, although I am not a betting man, that is what we are going to hear--it is a distortion, plain and simple. So I think I am going to try to correct the record in advance. Maybe next week, if I have done it adequately, there won't be any record to correct.”