One of the main charges against the Rangel tax plan is that it would increase taxes by $1 trillion. Which is a bit odd because the President's budget proposed the exact same revenue increase, although in his case it is collected through the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) instead of a rate surcharge on high income families.

The President has also said that he is committed to raising taxes by $1 trillion to solve the AMT, he just hasn't said who those tax increases would fall on. This is not an argument about the level of taxes just the fairest and most efficient way to collect them. The most constructive way forward would be for opponents of the Rangel plan to suggest how and on whom they would raise taxes by $1 trillion.

There might be better ways than Rangel has proposed, but continuing the current law AMT isn’t one of them.