Category — AMT

The United States Chamber of Commerce recently honored Peter Roskam for proving in his first term to be “an effective ally to the business community”.

Sounds great until you realize what exactly “being an effective ally to the business community” means.

Put simply, it means consistently voting against the interests of the majority of citizens in your district and giving big business exactly what it demands.

It means means Roskam voting against reducing the dependence on fossil fuels that is threatening our national security and destroying our environment by requiring minimum standards for the percentage of electricity generated using renewable sources of energy.

It means Roskam voting against tax incentives for energy conservation and development of clean, renewable energy sources because they are funded by the repeal of tax breaks to big oil companies now enjoying huge profits at our expense every time we fill up our tanks.

It means Roskam voting against the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007 which would have insured that Illinois’ uninsured children receive the kind of health care that Roskam’s own kids get at taxpayer expense.

It means Roskam standing up for the interests of big drug companies rather than allowing the Medicare program to negotiate for better prices on prescription drugs.

It means Roskam voting against protection of his constituents right to equal pay for equal work. And their right to organize.

And it means Roskam voting against protecting middle class taxpayers from the Alternative Minimum Tax.

So congratulations on your big award, Peter, and thanks for nothing. Its time we had a new Representative in Congress who works for us and not for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Peter Roskam is not telling you the truth.

Today (December 19th), Roskam published on his House web site a brief news item announcing “ROSKAM PROTECTS 70,000 IL-6 RESIDENTS FROM ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX”. This was in regard to the Democratic plan to relieve middle class taxpayers of liability for the Alternative Minimum Tax beginning in the coming tax season.

What Roskam is not telling you is that he and his Republican colleagues absolutely refused to vote for the measure until provisions were removed from the bill that would have closed loopholes that allow wealthy individuals to escape paying taxes by keeping assets offshore and allow some investment fund managers and venture capitalists to pay much lower tax rates than ordinary taxpayers.

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On Wednesday, December 12th, Peter Roskam again voted to hold hostage the Democratic plan to relieve middle class taxpayers of liability for the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), a tax which was instituted years ago to prevent the wealthiest individuals from escaping paying any taxes by setting a minimum tax that must be paid by individuals with incomes above a threshold. Because the tax was not designed to account for inflation, an addition 23 million individuals of relatively modest incomes will be affected in the coming tax season with an average of $2000 in additional tax liability, unless the Democrats in Congress are able to apply a fix.

Peter Roskam and his Republican colleagues, acting in tandem with George Bush, are presently attempting to obstruct the Democratic efforts to provide this needed relief to middle class taxpayers. The Republicans are obstructing this relief, not so much because they want to increase taxes on the middle class, but because, to them, the needs of the middle class are largely irrelevant. Republicans are focused on giving tax-breaks to the wealthiest individuals and to big business, and if to do so, they have to hold the middle class tax cut hostage, that is just fine with them.

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Peter Roskam has a lot of nerve. In a new op-ed on his Congressional web site entitled “Tax Season Might Just Get Worse”, Roskam warns his constituents that they may become subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax due to Congressional inaction. Peter is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. What he is not telling you is that he VOTED AGAINST a measure designed to relieve middle class taxpayers of threat of liability for the AMT. He voted against it because the bill, H.R. 3996, which is now in the Senate, is designed to reduce the tax burden on the middle class. Peter Roskam has no particular interest in the middle class. His goal is to help his wealthy clientele escape paying any tax whatsoever by totally eliminating the AMT, a change that will ultimately shift more of the tax burden to low-income and middle income taxpayers. Roskam’s Republican Party will attempt to obstruct the bill’s passage in the Senate and then try to blame it on the Democrats. If worse comes to worse, President Bush will find some lame excuse to veto it.

If you are a low-income or middle-income taxpayer, Peter Roskam is not your friend. His mission in Congress is to aid George Bush in his project to help the wealthiest individuals and corporations become wealthier, at the expense of the rest of us. Peter should be ashamed for trying to deceive you.

Our own fierce anti-tax warrior Peter Roskam just met a tax cut he didn’t like. Kind of freaky until you understand whose taxes would be cut.

On Friday, November 9th, the House voted, pretty much along party lines, to pass H.R. 3996: Temporary Tax Relief Act of 2007. Peter Roskam and the Republicans voted against passage.

The purpose of the bill is to prevent 23 million middle class families from being subjected to the Alternative Minimum Tax. Tax law normally puts me right to sleep but here’s what I understand about this one. The AMT was introduced in 1969 and was designed to ensure that wealthy individuals and corporations who were escaping tax liability completely through the use of deductions and loopholes beforced to pay some tax: 26-28% for individuals, 20% for corporations. The problem is that the threshold for the AMT was not indexed to inflation, and now some not so wealthy people may become subject to the AMT, perhaps 20% of all taxpayers by 2010.

The Democrats, in introducing this bill, aimed to make the AMT back into what it was intended to be: a minimum tax for the wealthy. Democrats believe in progressive taxation, that is, that the very wealthy, whose fortunes are built on the labor of all of us, should have a greater tax responsibility in proportion to their greater resources.

Peter Roskam, who normally loves a tax cut, voted against this one because it wasn’t designed to help his wealthiest constituents, but rather to help ordinary folks like you and me. Peter believes in regressive taxation - taxes that fall most heavily on those of modest means, taxes that help the rich get richer and the rest of us get poorer.