Kevin Drum calls me a “comedian” as he tries to blame the minority Republicans for the Democratic Congress’s failure to pass an AMT patch. So is the Associated Press a comedy troupe as well? They agree with me and not with Drum (or other stone-throwers) about what happened to the AMT before Thanksgiving.

Drum draws his conclusion through selective memory of what exactly happened in the months and months leading up to the Thanksgiving recess. Throughout that period, House Democrats refused to offer an AMT patch that did not include “pay-fors.” In other words, they held middle-class AMT reform hostage unless they could “recoup” the money that the government “loses” by not forcing millions of middle-class taxpayers to overpay on the AMT. This is what their vaunted “pay-go” policy is all about: $80 billion in tax increases must accompany the patch, or they won’t pass it.

Drum selectively omits this fact, which is everything. According to his interpretation:

Three weeks ago, because of this very issue, Harry Reid announced that he wanted to fast-track AMT reform. Democrats were all willing. So why didn’t it happen?
Because Republicans insisted that they would only allow the AMT tax cut to come to the floor if they were allowed to offer up amendments for four additional tax cuts at the same time. This was obvious political posturing: none of the amendments would have passed, but they would have been good campaign fodder for 2008.
Bottom line from the GOP: no campaign fodder, no AMT fix. Because campaign fodder is more important than actually helping out middle class taxpayers who might get hit with higher tax bills. Let’s get our story straight here.

This is very interesting. Of course, Reid only made his last-second gesture as Congress was on its way out the door. No one was, at any time, under the illusion that it would become law. House Democrats had already foreclosed on the possibility of changing anything — they wanted $80 billion in other tax increases, or AMT wasn’t going anywhere. I would expect the Senate Republicans to oppose this using any procedural maneuver they can, given that most of them oppose tax increases in general, and President Bush has promised not to let anyone raise taxes unless it is over his dead body.

So if Reid offers, at the last second before a deadline, to pass a bill that he knows will never become law, does that represent a good faith effort to pass a bill? You can judge for yourself, but I certainly don’t think so.

Considering that Democrats control Congress, and that their intransigence on the tax-hikes to accompany AMT will result in a tax-refund mess this spring, I’d say that my interpretation is spot-on. As AP recounts:

But, honoring their pledge not to pass legislation that adds to the federal deficit, Democrats voted to increase taxes by $80 billion in other areas, including for investment fund managers. Tax-adverse Republicans voted unanimously against the bill and Bush said he would veto any bill that included a tax increase.

If Drum thinks it’s amusing and I’m a comedian because his facts are wrong, I’ll take that too — although most people online seem to think my attempts at humor are lame.