June 9, 2006, The Nine Lives of the Death Tax
Well, well... Republican efforts (supported by some Democrats) for outright repeal of the nation's fairest and most efficient tax, that on estates that doesn't really kick in until estates reach around $2,000,000, failed to overcome a "cloture" (or "filibuster") vote in the senate.
In part, this issue is a result of a failure of Democratic discipline (see "Baucus, Max") in two ways. The first is holding its members in line against any asinine deficit-expanding repeals, until we have some semblance of overall budget sanity, there's no call for making things yet worse. Second, the proponents of repeal have had the day calling the estate tax "the death tax", when it should rightly be called the estate and gift tax, or better, "the Paris Hilton tax". Because it's only paid by (quite literally) estates of millionaires-- and multimillionaires at that.
I understand that in a battle of the 1% vs. the 99%, the 1% has every advantage... but that's why Democrats are supposed to step up and play fair.
Looks like the tough rules of the filibuster have made that happen.
Now, let's just see about declaring those troublesome senators who stood in the way of the death tax repeal as unlawful combatants...
Comments
They actually had the name of the Gift and Estate Tax changed to the Death Tax by an act of congress or something. I kid you not. That's what they do with their time, when they are cutting social spending and allowing a president to become king.
Posted by eRobin at June 11, 2006 10:31 PM