"Scrapping the AMT would lower the potential tax hit for affluent families. But the AMT has survived for decades because it generates a lot of money for government coffers."
"Eliminating the AMT would cost the U.S. government some $700 billion in revenue over the next decade, about half the estimated price tag for the tax bill Congress is now considering."
"It would also potentially remove some of the constraints on the use of tax shelters by the wealthy, allowing taxpayers to take advantage of more loopholes and deductions, Gale notes."
"This is a good example of how tax data can be manipulated. Pelosi is usually eager to point out that wealthy Americans will mostly benefit from broad-based tax cuts. In this case, wealthier Americans would mainly feel the effects of a broad-based elimination of a tax break"
"But in this case, Pelosi chooses to ignore the distributional tables and instead focus on the absolute number of people affected, even if the impact is mostly felt by the rich. She earns two Pinocchios."
"Part of the problem for Americans is the disconnect Panetta highlights between the military and the rest of society. In 1945, just before the end of World War II, there were 12 million active servicemembers. Now, there are just over a million or so."
"They're the best 1 percent this country produces," White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said Thursday in his defense of President Trump in the White House briefing room.
"It's actually less than 1 percent. That number in 1945 represented roughly 9 percent of the country's total population. Now, the number of active-duty servicemembers is only about 0.4 percent of the population."
"Most of you, as Americans, don't know them," Kelly continued. "Many of you don't know anyone that knows any one of them."
"Americans are far less engaged in the debate over worldwide American missions than they likely would be if they had a daughter or son or neighbor in the fight. That has to have an effect on American society and policymaking."
"Last year, we produced a series of stories on American gun deaths and the people behind the statistics. From that reporting, and other sources, we know mass shootings are different from other kinds of gun deaths in several ways.
First, they’re rare, and the people doing the shooting are different. The majority of gun deaths in America aren’t even homicides, let alone caused by mass shootings. Two-thirds of the more than 33,000 gun deaths that take place in the U.S. every year are suicides "
"Democrats — never ones to let a tragedy go to waste — immediately began pushing the gun control narrative before the bodies were cold. And why not? People just witnessed the largest mass shooting in modern American history. The atmosphere is rife with fear and anxiety, and the need to do something to make us all feel safer is on the lips and at the fingertips of everyone with an outlet."
"The mob is ready to move, or so too many in the business of restriction and regulation hope. They’ll stand on the graves of the slain, wheel out the family members of victims willing to cooperate with their narrative, and talk about how their woke kids are asking poignant questions about today’s society."
"Those who resist the mob in order to keep their freedom will be accused of having the blood of the innocents on their hands. They will make super-villains out of anyone who speaks against the buzzword of “common sense” reforms or gun laws."
"But a large swath of us are not in this mob. We want our freedoms more than we want this “safety.” We cherish free will and liberty over restriction and regulation."
"We do this in full understanding that freedom comes with risks, and no guarantees. Freedom is being able to possess available firearms for self-defense, while also meaning someone else can legitimately, or illegitimately get it for nefarious purposes."
"Hugh Hefner created Playboy at his kitchen table in Chicago. The magazine was blamed for (or credited with) setting off a cultural revolution in America, but within a few years Hefner was branded a male chauvinist. He was a proponent of free speech and a champion of civil rights who was decried as a merchant of smut."