La causa incorrecta.

A couple of months ago, citing a lead article in the Washington Post, we wrote about a group that seems to consider it self the new proletariat--the $100,000-to-$500,000 income group--and la causa they champion: relief from the alternative minimum tax. Now comes a lead article on the same subject in the Wall Street Journal, with the headline: "Democrats Focus on Tax Relief for the Middle Class." The article identifies households with incomes with as much as $250,000, and those between $250,000 and $500,000, as "the middle and upper-middle class." This ignores the fact that 80 percent of taxpayers make less than $80,000. My point in the earlier "Tilting" was that these people earning under $80,000 need tax relief much more than the $100,000-and-up income group, and the tax that hurts them the most is not the AMT, but the payroll tax. The way to fix it, Maya MacGuineas of the New America Foundation says, is through a tax credit designed to help the people it most adversely affects.

But my point is that all the people in the $100,000 range should stop letting their self-pity prevent them from seeing greater tax injustice, and that they stop using misleading examples to alarm the reader. The front-page story in the Post was accompanied by a chart featuring the not-exactly-typical case of a family with six children. Another chart used recently by Post columnist Ruth Marcus shows the AMT affecting income as low as $30,000, but you have to read the fine print to see that it is not about the impact of the AMT this year, but its projected effect in 2012.

I have a good many friends in the $100,000-to-$500,000 group, and I know they worry a lot about money. I sympathize with them, but they need to be reminded that their worries come from choosing to pay for private schools, own two or more nice cars, live in ever-larger houses, and pay for that Grey Goose and all the other accessories and amenities that have come to be viewed as essential. Finally, it should be remembered that in many cases all the AMT does is deprive people of the benefits of the Bush tax cuts, which most liberals agree shouldn't have been made anyway.