In a way, you already got your wish..

Congress didn't pass a patch to the AMT for 2012 (AMT was never adjusted for inflation from when it was passed 40+ years ago). Tax cuts are going to end for a lot of 2 income households as the AMT will kick in. A lot of people are going to get a very nasty surprise when they do their taxes for 2012.

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Flood victims are having enough trouble paying rent and credit card bills as it is.

End the bush-era tax cuts.......now

Jersey City resident Carol Greenberg and her family were flooded out of their basement apartment in Downtown Jersey City when Hurricane Sandy slammed the East Coast on Oct. 29.
Greenberg and her children - ages 17, 19, and 23 - have since found temporary quarters at the Grace Van Vorst Church on Erie and Second streets where she's been a parishioner since 1996.

"We didn't realize Hurricane Sandy was going to hit as hard as it did," Greenberg said last night at the church. "We had a plan and two pumps to get the water out, but unfortunately what we had wasn't enough."

Yesterday morning, Greenberg joined New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez and New York Sen. Charles Schumer at Schumer's office on Third Avenue in Manhattan to help promote a bill that senators are touting that would make the cost of Sandy-related repairs fully tax deductible.

"I think that the tax break will help people attempting to make their lives functional again," Greenberg said. "There are a lot of people whose stories are much worse than ours. There are some horrendous stories to tell out there."

Greenberg's apartment on Wayne Street near Grove Street flooded with 3.5-feet of water. The family lost beds, clothing, TVs, computers and a refrigerator.

She believes that her landlord, who did not have flood insurance and was turned down for assistance by FEMA, does not have the money to repair her apartment.

"It made me re-evaluate what is important," Greenberg said. "I had no choice but to let this all go."

Dubbed the "Hurricane Sandy and National Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2012," the Menendez-Schumer bill would allow taxpayers to deduct all expenses incurred for storm-related cleanup and waive penalties for early withdrawals from retirement plans.

The proposed legislation would, among other initiatives, grant exemptions to people who provided free housing to storm refugees and provide tax credits to disaster-damaged businesses that continued to pay employees.

"This bill will provide critical tools to help families recover their losses, rebuild shattered businesses, and restore communities devastated by the storm," Menendez, the former mayor of Union City, said in a statement.

The proposal by Menendez and Schumer comes two days after President Obama asked Congress for $60.4 billion in emergency aid to help clean up and rebuild New Jersey, New York and other storm-battered states.

It also comes as Congress and the White House are in tense negotiations to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff - a combination of expiring tax breaks and spending cuts designed to cut government spending by $1.2 trillion over a decade.

The Star-Ledger contributed to this story.
JJ