BNA ($): Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking Republican Charles Grassley (Iowa) Jan. 4 introduced a bill (S. 55) to eliminate the individual alternative minimum tax. This move is not unexpected. Baucus and Grassley have been clamoring for AMT repeal for years, but I choked on my waffle this morning when I got to this bit: Grassley has adamantly maintained that the cost of lost revenues from preventing the AMT from further creeping into the middle class should not be offset, given that the revenue was never meant to be collected in the first place.

CongressDaily ($) is reporting that House Republicans are drafting their own minimum wage increase legislation that will not include an estate tax provision. Here's the key passage: The decision to pass on the estate tax reflects an effort on the part of Republicans to avoid heated partisan conflicts such as the pitched battle over the so-called trifecta bill last year, according to aides. Looks like the GOP has decided the "trifecta" strategy from last year wasn't such a winner for them.

AMT reform is a thorny issue, discussed at length here, which will confront Congress in 2007. Now comes A Progressive Solution to the AMT Problem from Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ). The key elements of their four-year, revenue-neutral plan:

• extend the 2006 AMT exemptions through 2010, indexed for inflation
• remove the 15 percent tax rate on capital gains and dividends, treating from capital gains them the same as other income, but only for AMT purposes

Incoming Senate Budget chair Kent Conrad (D-ND) said today that the strictures of PAYGO would not block an extension of middle-class tax breaks such as the child tax credit, which make up about two-thirds of Bush's tax policies expiring in 2011. These extensions "are gonna sail through here even if they're not paid for," he said, adding that PAYGO rules, as currently contemplated, could be waived with a supermajority vote. Conrad also noted that PAYGO would most likely be adopted as a Senate rules change or as part of the budget resolution, because Bush will not sign it into law.