It's the middle of April, which means it's time to wring our hands about the Alternative Minimum Tax. This parallel tax system, first created to make sure really rich people couldn't avoid paying taxes by notching huge deductions, has slowly expanded its reach. If you live in a state where incomes, property taxes, and state income taxes are comparatively high i.e., the coasts you're in greater danger of paying the AMT. That's why I've dubbed it a secret tax on Democrats, and that's also why the AMT could become a powerful political weapon for Democratic candidates in 2008...

When the crisis peaks, Democrats can offer their alternative: fix the AMT, which would then be hitting millions of middle-class voters by rolling back the Bush tax cuts on the very rich. That's a political argument they will win. What they shouldn't do is try to repair the AMT problem too soon, before the catastrophe next April. Fixing it before taxpayers feel the sting would be better fiscal policy but lousy politics.

In fact, the potential of the AMT to strike a great many people in the future is the reason it has never been fixed. It's not just that the AMT raises lots of money in the current year. Given Congress' failure to fix it permanently, it always seems as if the AMT is poised to raise huge sums of money in the coming years, which allows federal budgeters to project soaring revenues in the future. "It promises the revenues that make everybody's fiscally responsible projections look realistic," said Maya MacGuineas, director of the fiscal policy program at the New America Foundation....

For the complete article, please visit the Slate website.