Leadership

It was good to hear that Charlie Rangel, incoming chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, intends to have a go at fixing the alternative minimum tax. The AMT doesn't have a sexy name like the Death Tax (really the estate tax) or the Marriage Penalty (a lesbian couple I know paid $850 more in taxes because the federal government refuses to recognize their Massachusetts marriage--but that's not the penalty Republicans want to talk about), but it affects an increasing number of middle-class Americans. Republicans may oppose reform covertly, because it would mean even higher deficits, but they cannot do so openly, and a legitimate change that would make the tax code more fair and benefit millions of Americans has a real chance of passage.