The AMT Must Be Destroyed

It's a nightmare. And it's growing fast.

"Carthage must be destroyed."
-- Cato the Elder

by Rod D. Martin
December 8, 2005

Thus did Cato, the great Roman senator and orator, conclude each and every speech of his career before the Senate.

Archeologists understand his wrath.

As they've confirmed, Carthage was a city that sacrificed its children to terrible gods, an empire whose very existence threatened to engulf Rome's.

Today, our country faces a monstrous tax that is not-so-slowly devouring not just our children, but us first, if we don't stop it now.

Fortunately, we have two possible Catos -- Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) -- in our Senate's well who are calling for its demise.

Their bill would do what President Bush's tax reform panel and so many others have recommended -- wipe the abominable Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) off the books.

The AMT was invented in 1969 as a trap for just a few thousand wealthy people who, in certain leftists' opinions, “weren't paying their fare share.” It forces income earners to re-comp…