Max Baucus: “I underline the urgency of curing this alternative minimum tax problem and also underline how strongly the Senators on…”

“I underline the urgency of curing this alternative minimum tax problem and also underline how strongly the Senators on this side of the aisle are attempting to get that legislation passed as soon as possible. We tried, on this side, to get AMT legislation up before the Senate and passed so that American taxpayers will not have to pay it. That was objected to by the other side. We made many attempts. There were many suggestions by the majority leader to bring up legislation to prevent the alternative minimum tax from going into effect. They were all objected to by the other side. We are here again trying to get resolution. The leader filed cloture on the House-passed bill so we can get a vote on the issue in an attempt to move the issue forward. I commend him for that. Again it was, in a sense, objected to by the other side because they offered just now a package which is somewhat in the right direction but also has complications in it which raise questions to the degree we can fully get AMT passed. But I want to underline the importance of this body passing legislation to prevent the alternative minimum tax from affecting about 19 million Americans. We all know this is a pernicious tax, it is a stealth tax. It was not intended to have this effect on so many middle-income Americans. Unfortunately, it has this effect because when it was enacted years ago it was not indexed, and each year more and more American taxpayers have to pay the alternative minimum tax.”