Interesting story this morning from Bloomberg.com:  Bush Faces a $30 Billion Quandary After Delay of Tax Overhaul:

President George W. Bush is backing legislation to prevent the alternative minimum tax from imposing a $30 billion increase on 15 million households next year, a task that would widen the deficit and complicate the Republican push to extend breaks on dividends and capital gains….

Bush’s 2006 budget made no provisions to protect taxpayers from the AMT because he wanted to address the problem as part of a comprehensive overhaul of the tax code that would raise some taxes and cut others, without contributing to the deficit. That larger endeavor, people familiar with the matter said this week, has been delayed for at least a year as officials fear it would prove a hard sell with the public and Congress during the 2006 midterm elections.

Bush is throwing his support behind a measure the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on today to curb the minimum tax’s reach for one year. The House measure renews a temporary law that exempts a higher amount of income from the AMT, reducing the likelihood that households with incomes as low as $75,000 would trigger it.