There are shelves all over Washington groaning under the weight of blue-ribbon-committee reports that made a big initial splash, then sank into obscurity. Many people predict just that fate for the report that emerged last week from George W. Bush's tax-advisory panel-but I doubt it. Sure, Bush's current political weakness limits his ability to shove unpopular measures through Congress, but he's right about the need to fix the tax code. Otherwise the accursed alternative minimum tax will spread like a financial flu. The hideously complex AMT was added to the tax code in 1969 to stop a few rich people from avoiding taxes entirely. But this year it will afflict 3.6 million families, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Next year, 18.9 million. In 2010, 30.9 million. That's not a handful of tax dodgers—it's the masses.
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