Hoyer says Congress may not be able to patch AMT

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) hinted Tuesday that Congress may not be able to stop a big tax increase from hitting 23 million Americans.

Hoyer, pressed on whether Congress would resolve disputes over the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), said, “Maybe.”

{mosads}His remark came as a surprise, since it has widely been assumed that Democrats will give up their effort to “pay for” the AMT patch and go with the Senate plan to load the cost onto the deficit.

Hoyer’s statement came the morning after nearly 30 conservative Blue Dog Democrats signaled their discontent with the Senate AMT plan by voting with Republicans against an adjournment resolution.

Hoyer was asked about efforts to resolve the dispute. He said he had come to the 11 a.m. briefing directly from the meeting to resolve the impasse and did not know the “state of play on AMT.”

“There’s no deal” with the Blue Dogs, he said.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) pounced on the news, calling Hoyer’s remarks “another reminder that the Democrat majority’s priorities do not reflect those of the American people.”

“Democrats created the AMT, repeatedly voted against Republican efforts to abolish it entirely, and have failed to stop it’s impending assault on 23 million middle-class American taxpayers,” he said. 

A Hoyer aide argued that Republicans had been obstructing them from passing a patch that does not add to the deficit. “Democrats have been trying for weeks to pass an AMT patch that does not add to the deficit and Senate Republicans have been blocking it,” the aide said. “We are again sending them a message that it is time to act like the fiscal conservatives they claim to be.”

An AMT patch must be passed soon to avoid a big tax hike. By waiting as long as they have, lawmakers have already raised the risk of a tax-filing mess that could provide fodder for political attacks. The IRS says it needs seven weeks from the time the president signs the AMT patch into law to update its forms and re-program its computers.

Twice this year, House Democrats have passed plans to stave off the AMT for a year with a “patch,” paid for with tax adjustments. Democrats say the adjustments raised revenue by closing loopholes used by wealthy hedge fund managers. Republicans called them tax increases. They both met defeat in the Senate.