House leaders reject Senate's AMT fix

By Bob Cusack and Mike Soraghan
December 07, 2007

Despite the Senate’s overwhelming vote to pass an Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) patch without offsets, House leadership officials Friday indicated they will continue to press the upper chamber to pass a measure that is paid for.

Stacey Bernards, spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), said Hoyer “has said repeatedly he will not vote for an AMT bill that is not paid for. I also expect the House to send back to the Senate a responsibly paid-for bill in response to what they passed [Thursday].”

Senate Democrats have tried to pass an AMT patch that would shield 19 million to 23 million taxpayers from the tax, which hits middle- to upper-class households. But Republicans have balked at the offsets, noting that the AMT tax was crafted to hit only wealthy families and has spread to taxpayers it never was intended to affect.
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