So it turns out that the big Republican stimulus package, rolled out by the House Republican leadership on the day of the stimulus vote, may have actually raised taxes. A staffer for the House Ways and Means committee email Greg Sargent this:

In 2008, 4.2 million Americans had to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The Republican proposal would lower marginal tax rates for individuals, but would not reduce AMT rates. Current law requires you to pay the greater of the two rates, so many of those receiving this lower marginal rate would now be held liable for the AMT.

There is no question that Congress needs to — and will — act to prevent the number of taxpayers hit by the AMT from growing to an estimated 26 million this year. However, we confirmed with the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation that 26 million people would still be forced to pay the AMT this year under the GOP bill. Essentially, their tax bill would give with one hand and take away with the other, leaving 26 million families without the tax cut they promised in their bill.

Sounds like the typical kind of loophole we are used to seeing in these kind of packages. Of course the Republicans aren’t taking this, and a spokesman for Eric Cantor emailed Greg the following:

These are the type of untruths spread by House Democrats that continue to undermine President Obama’s desire to work together to provide real solutions to the challenges faced by hardworking Americans. This is nothing short of a total fabrication, as there will be no more people subjected to the AMT under the Republican jobs plan than the Democrat spending bill. In fact it is likely that the Republican plan would subject less to it.{[}]lt;/p>

The truth of the matter is that both plans address the AMT and were written under the assumption that the regular AMT patch would be passed by the end of the year, just as Congress has done this entire decade. The very fact that the Democrat Ways and Means Committee is so obsessed with discrediting the Republican plan to create jobs instead of promoting their own spending plan brings into question their motives.

No read through this. The Cantor person is saying basically saying “but we thought about the AMT patch that would be passed this year”, however the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation took that into consideration with their assessment, so Cantor’s person really didn’t disprove anything – just a lot of whining that Democrats would question their plan.

If that doesn’t smell of total politics, then consider this. We don’t have access to this Republican plan. Instead we have to rely on the word of the author’s and their hand-picked analysts to say “Hey this is some great work!”. Now that the bill is in that limbo stage waiting on the Senate to take it up, Democratic staffers are going to the Republican bill and looking at it. But wait – that is undermining bi-partisanship according to the GOP. How dare the Democrats raise questions of the Republican plan. In the spirit of bi-partisanship they are supposed to pass it without reading it.

This little bit of new information proves without a shadow of doubt that the Republican leadership in the House has no ambitions of working with the Democrats. Instead they define bi-partisanship as they get everything they want. If that isn’t the case, then they have proved they in no way want a stimulus package out there, but rather they want to just play politics. Either way it is sick and should be construed as a negligence of their duty as sworn in members of Congress. {[}]lt;/p>