Having had my own brushes with the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), I am pleased to see this Opinion Journal editorial on the unexpected tax—cutting zeal of the likes of Senator Barbara Boxer. Becuase the AMT penalizes those with large deductions, including large deductions of state income taxes, it hits the residents of high tax states especially hard. Hence Boxer's stance.

Thanks to the AMT, there have been years in which I have had to cancel planned charitable contributions, because such deductions would have incurred an AMT penalty. If only I could have kept the contributions and penalized the IRS! It is truly a stupid and hideous tax scheme. Get rid of it.

Thomas Lifson   4 15 05