AMT Relief in the FY2005 Budget : A Bandaid for a Hemorrhage

The President’s Budget, released on February 2, 2004, admits that there is a problem with the AMT, but proposes only a small and temporary fixextending through 2005 an existing temporary fix that currently expires at the end of 2004. This not only fails to resolve the problem, it also substantially reduces the apparent budgetary cost of the President’s main proposals to make the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent (because taxpayers on the AMT will get less benefits from the rate reductions).