Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Commmittee, told reporters that he would advance a one-year "patch" of the alternative minimum tax, originally aimed at a few tax dodgers, but now threatening to hit about 20 million middle-class taxpayers next year if not changed.

At the same time, Rangel said that a more comprehensive and permanent bill to rewrite the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, will probably not face a vote by the full House until next year.

The AMT originally was designed to make sure that the wealthiest couldn't use tax breaks or deductions to eliminate their entire tax liability. But inflation and recent tax cuts push more and more taxpayers into the grasp of the minimum tax each year, depriving about 4 million tax filers from taking full advantage of various deductions and tax credits.

The threat facing taxpayers is very real: more than one-third of taxpayers making between $75,000 and $100,000 a year face an AMT hit of almost $1,000 next April filing season if the tax code isn't fixed, either permanently or with another patch. Taxpayers making between $100,000-$200,000 face an average $2,000 in additional tax.

Rangel has been working for months on a sweeping tax bill that would fix the AMT by raising taxes on upper income ratepayers, while cutting taxes for married couples and low-income parents and workers.

The idea is that the tax increase on the wealthy would raise enough to both fix the AMT and spread smaller benefits to lower income taxpayers. But its tax increase on the wealthy of about $800 billion over 10 years - a surcharge on incomes over $500,000 or so - has some Democrats nervous, especially those in GOP-leaning districts.

And since the Senate has made it plain that a broader tax bill is a nonstarter in that chamber - and would be vetoed by Bush in any event - Rangel bowed to political reality and announced he would advance the one-year measure, adjusting the AMT and extending expiring provisions such as the research and development tax credit for business.

Rangel said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is "excited" about his broader tax bill, which he has dubbed the "mother of all tax reforms." But Pelosi is not eager to jam the bill through this fall. She wants to give rank-and-file Democrats plenty of time to digest the bill.

"Vetting it would bring us more support than fast-tracking it," Rangel said.

Still unresolved is whether the approximately $65 billion cost of the one-year tax bill will be offset by tax increases elsewhere in the code as required by House pay-as-you-go rules. Democratic leaders insist any measure coming to the House floor will be fully "paid for."

"We'll pay for it with great difficulty," Rangel told reporters.

But Rangel acknowledged that the Senate, where the rules will force Democrats to win GOP votes to pass any AMT fix, may not go along with raising taxes or closing loopholes to pay for fixing the minimum tax. It takes 60 votes to waive rules in the Senate requiring that lawmakers pay as they go.

Asked whether the final House-Senate compromise AMT patch will be fully financed by such tax increases, Rangel said: "I don't know. I have to deal with these people on the other side. They really think they're in charge of everything."