Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Estate tax reformation watch

According to today's Tax Notes a cloture vote on the estate tax repeal bill, passed earlier this year in the House, is the second item on the docket when the Senate returns from recess. However, the chances of success are limited, from the same article:

In a Farm Broadcasters News Conference last week, Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, called the chances of achieving full repeal “zero.”

“We're short of 60 votes,” he said.

What's more, one would think that estate tax repeal wouldn't go down well before all the Katrina-rlated issues are addressed. On the other hand, does this make a compromise plan more likely? Or will the Democrats sense victory and decide to stonewall?

1 comment:

JLM said...

According to Sunday's Washington Post, the good ship Estate Tax Repeal is listing badly. This week's reports that FEMA and Corps of Engineers funding was diverted to meet war expenses, rather than rescind any Bush tax cuts, won't help either.

Liberals seem to have been reenergized on the subject. See, for instance, this Op-Ed piece from Seattle.

Even the Portsmouth, NH Herald carried a long letter on the subject this morning, written by Mike Swartz of Rye:

“I personally have no problem saying someone who works hard and accumulates wealth should be able to pass financial security onto their children - but $50 million, $100 million or a billion-dollar estate, who are we kidding? This legislation is one of the best examples of extreme wealth taking advantage of our democracy.”