Michael Hiltzik: What do Republicans have against alimony? And other weird questions raised by the tax bill

What does the Republican Party have against divorce?

That's the question raised by one of the provisions in the tax bill announced by House Republicans last week. It's one of many provisions that will have the effect of squeezing middle-income taxpayers, with little rationale beyond producing a few ducats more that can be given to the wealthy, who are the party's patrons. The markup phase of the tax bill's movement toward a vote - call it the dickering-over-details process - began Monday.

We'll cover several of the details here. But let's start with alimony.

Under current law, alimony paid normally is deducted from the payer's income, and declared as income by the recipient. The tax bill would require that it be paid from after-tax dollars - in other words, the payer would lose the