Colorado Union of Taxpayers Weblog

AMT Bait & Switch December 14, 2007

In the Denver Post’s monthly pitch for higher taxes on someone, David Sirota twists the truth once again.

The subject is the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).  He leaves out a few facts:  1)  The AMT was designed with an intentional inflation trap.  2) Congress tends to use inflation traps to increase taxes. 3)  The Democrats could have fixed the problem decades ago, but didn’t because they like inflation traps.  4)  This inflation trap is aimed at the middle class.  5)  By threatening the middle class each year, the Democrats can pull a bait and switch to tax someone else, ratcheting up taxes by $50 billion a year.

David Sirota cleverly claims that an ugly millionaire is holding the middle class hostage.  That is not what is really happening.  The real hostage is the middle class as he says, but the real hostage taker is the new Democrat Congressional majority.  He thinks taxpayers have a short memory and a low IQ.