Thinking the unthinkable

Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)wrote the permanent estate tax reform bill that the House passed earlier this month. He no longer expects the issue to be resolved before year end, according to The Wall Street Journal. Accordingly, the estate tax would expire on January 1, 2010.

Pomeroy reportedly expects Congress to revisit the estate tax next year, with a retroactive effective date. Interesting idea, and almost certainly unconstitutional. True, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a retroactive increase in the estate tax rate during the early Clinton Administration, but that is much different from a retroactive tax itself.

That may be why Ways and Means Chairman Rangel has been angling for a two-month estate tax patch, hoping to avoid that constitutional question.