Friday, August 04, 2006

ETETRA 2006 fails

Republicans came up short in the Senate vote on estate tax reform. Ironically, they had no more votes for the watered down approach than they did for outright repeal of the estate tax. Pairing the bill with the minimum wage hike accomplished exactly zero.

Democrats insist that the minimum wage hike will be taken up again after recess, while Frist is adamant that it won't happen independent of estate tax reform. Ironically, if Frist had gotten all of his Republicans on board, the procedural hurdle would have been cleared.

1 comment:

JLM said...

Actually ETETRA failed by only three votes. The fourth "no" vote was cast by Bill Frist himself. This tactical maneuver, says The Washington Post, will allow Frist to request later reconsideration of the bill.