Orrin Hatch: “I rise today to applaud the conferees for successfully concluding the negotiations and giving us a tax reconciliation…”

“I rise today to applaud the conferees for successfully concluding the negotiations and giving us a tax reconciliation bill that I believe fixes glaring problems that would otherwise punish millions of American families. The provisions in the conference report before us today will also help to perpetuate the strong growth our economy has experienced over the last 3 years that has created millions of jobs for Americans. I want to exhort my colleagues to give their support to the conferees' efforts and vote for the passage of this conference report. One major problem the conference report addresses is the fact that the alternative minimum tax is due to hit tens of millions of American households this year had it not been temporarily fixed. The ``fix'' provided in the bill before us is by necessity only a 1 year ``Band- Aid,'' so our tax writers will have to address this issue once again next year. Without this provision over 18 million households would unexpectedly find themselves bereft of deductions and facing a higher tax bill. The alternative minimum tax is Exhibit A for the law of unintended consequences in the tax world. Originally created as a response to news reports that a few millionaires were using available deductions to not pay any taxes at all, this provision, which is essentially a parallel tax system to our ``normal'' tax system, is on pace to snare tens of millions of households in just a few years unless repealed or reformed permanently.…”