On Monday, Gus spoke to members of the Plant City Rotary Club about his work in Congress and his efforts in the House to pass meaningful fiscal stimulus and tax reform. 

Gus told the group that Congress needs to make permanent Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) relief, which would have affected more than 23 million Americans had Congress not acted in December 2007 to pass another one year patch.

While this AMT patch may have saved millions of Americans from this unfair tax for another year, Congress needs to act to make AMT tax relief permanent. Gus has co-sponsored and voted for several pieces of legislation that would do exactly this.

For example, one piece of legislation Gus co-sponsored in November of last year, H.R. 3818, would immediately, fully, and permanently repeal the current AMT; make permanent the current capital gains and dividends tax rates; and create a voluntary Simplified Tax that would give individuals the option of paying under a highly simplified income tax system or under the regular income tax as it is structured now.

Gus told the Rotary group, "Whether or not permanent AMT relief makes it into the fiscal stimulus package, this issue must be addressed at some point this year or the middle class and small business owners will suffer."