Stick it to me time

A few years back, the politicians in Washington -- as always on the lookout for ways to relieve American families of their earnings and use their ill-gotten gains to buy votes -- came up with a doozy.
As it turns out, there were a few dozen taxpayers who were earning substantial sums of money but, paying little or no income tax.
They weren't tax cheats, like some of President Obama's appointees. They were following all the rules that Congress had laid down in the labyrinthine tax code.
But Congress still didn't like the result so they passed a law that basically created another tax code to extract money from these honest taxpayers.
It was called the Alternative Minimum Tax -- quite possibly the most unfair tax law ever written.
It was only supposed to affect about 100 people. But it was cleverly designed to expand each year and ensnare more taxpayers.
This year -- believe it or not -- it will turn 25 million American taxpayers upside down, shaking $63 billion from their pockets. Families that earn as little as $75,000 will be included.
It is only one of about 70 new taxes that descended on middle America Jan. 1, according to Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal. The Democrat Congress allowed the Bush tax relief to expire, a further blow to economic recovery.
But the continued expansion of the AMT means schoolteachers and bus drivers and many other Americans who didn't fancy themselves among the "rich" are learning the liberal lexicon the hard way.
Is there any wonder that the Tea Party movement is the largest and fastest growing political force in decades?
How's that hope and change working out for you?