Alternative Minimum Tax-- large families with big mortgages in high-tax jurisdictions -- blue states -- are likely victims.

AMT Hits In the Middle: "By Albert B. Crenshaw | Washington Post Staff Writer | Sunday, February 26, 2006; Page F01

Purveyors of irony must also enjoy the AMT. Cooked up back in the 1960s to try to make sure the wealthy couldn't parlay loopholes to escape taxes entirely, the tax was enacted in more or less its present form in the 1980s. Other than some tax-rate increases and some minor adjustments, it has been left largely alone, allowing inflation slowly but steadily to increase its reach.

Today, because of inflation and other factors, the tax is almost as likely to fall upon the merely well-to-do as upon the truly wealthy. And because of the way it is structured, large families with big mortgages in high-tax jurisdictions -- blue states -- are likely victims. ...