Senate rejects permanent estate tax repeal

June 8, 2006

It was close, but proponents of a [tag]permanent[/tag] [tag]repeal[/tag] of the [tag]estate tax[/tag] needed 60 votes to overcome a [tag]filibuster[/tag] and send this nonsense to the [tag]president[/tag]. They came three votes short.

Senators voted Thursday to reject a Republican effort to abolish taxes on inherited estates during an election year with control of Congress at stake.

GOP leaders had pushed senators to permanently eliminate the estate tax, which disappears in 2010 under President Bush’s first tax cut, but rears up again a year later.

A 57-41 vote fell three votes short of advancing the bill. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said the Senate will vote again this year on a tax that opponents call the “death tax.”

Two Republicans, Lincoln [tag]Chafee[/tag] (R.I.) and George [tag]Voinovich[/tag] (Ohio), joined the Dems. As Voinovich put it, “Repealing the estate tax during this time of fiscal crisis would be incredibly irresponsible and intellectually dishonest.”

There’s still talk of an almost-equally-irresponsible “compromise” under consideration, but in the meantime, today’s vote was very encouraging.

As for the three big divisive votes of the month — anti-gay amendment, flag burning, and estate tax — the reality-based community is two-for-two.

Yah! The first step to overcoming systemic deficits for the rest of time has been taken.

  • Hallelujah! That’s really excellent. Chafee and Voinovich, sweet. That takes some stones to turn your back on the party line.

  • Good. The repeal of estate taxes would just benefit idiots like Paris Hilton.

    And, yes, repeal would blow a hole in the federal budget, thus accelerating our slide into banana republic status. Good for Voinovich. He’s fast becoming my favorite Republican.

  • So much for my dream of America creating a permanent landed aristocracy along the lines 18th Century France.

    Damn

  • It is, of course, truly the “Aristocracy Tax”.

    Patriots were those who fought a revolutionary war against the landed hereditary aristocracy, some 230 years ago this July. The Aristocracy Tax is what keeps us from having one here.

    I like the “Paris Hilton Tax”, but it’s more than that, it’s an “Aristocracy Tax”.

  • This is welcome news, but how could 57 senators in good conscience vote for this repeal? There is no base to pander to when it comes to the estate tax. Only the richest Americans are ever affected by it. This just shows what we’re up against – a government for and by the extremely wealthy.

  • There is no base to pander to when it comes to the estate tax.

    Hark, not to be contrary, but there is a base to pander to: all the rural and blue collar folk who’ve been misled into believing that this Aristocracy Tax (great term, btw) actually pushes farmers off their land. Even when the NYT couldn’t find a single farm that was ever lost due to this tax, the president still had people weaving the deception.

    The fact that this bold lie would be easy for competent politicians to repudiate doesn’t make it so.

  • “There is no base to pander to when it comes to the estate tax.” – hark

    The base is the self delusional people who think someday they will marry Paris Hilton or Brad Pitt and be rich enough that the Estate Tax would matter.

    There is a line from the movie 1776 where John Dickinson says: “Don’t forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor.” which sums up the reason so many people oppose a “Death Tax” that will never effect them.

    That and total ignorance 😉

  • This means of course that in 2010 when the Estate Tax goes to 0% for one year, we will see a spat of contract killings of multi-millionaries.

  • Lance (#8) there is also polling supporting that very point (although polling is hardly as eloquent as the 1776 quote) — and it is why attacking Bush’s tax policies as being for the “top 1%” is so difficult to do successfully.

    Presumably it is also why lotteries are so successful: Americans are mathematically challenged.

  • The Republicans prefer the term “Death Tax.”

    “Aristocracy Tax” sounds good.

    My name for the “estate tax” is the “Wealth Transfer Tax” for very large estates. The WTT for short.

  • As much as I like the term “Aristocracy Tax” it will not help overcome the “Death Tax” brand. It’s too high-falutin.

    How about the following terms:

    “Ridiculously Wealthy Tax”

    “Trust-fund Baby Tax”

    “Too Good to Work Tax”

    “No need to Work Tax”

    my favorite is “Trust Fund Baby Tax”. The only potential downside is that the GOP will try to frame it as the “Baby Tax” by always referring to it that way. However, I think we could use that against them:

    GOP talking head: “…that’s right we want to abolish the Death Tax, or as my collegue here likes to call it, the Baby Tax.”

    DEM talking head: “…hahaha that’s really funny Mr. GOP. We call it the TRUST FUND Baby Tax because that’s who it affects, not farmers, not our small business people, but Trust Fund Babies. However, you are right that repealling the Trust Fund Baby Tax would be a Baby Tax becuase that’s who would have to pay for it. your repeal would cause massive deficits that would be paid for by our babies and their babies.”

  • (not that anyone really cares anymore)

    How about this one:

    “Born Rich Tax”

    I like it! Easy to remember and fairly accurate. Also, the implication is that if you make the money yourself (or win the lottery) you won’t have to pay it! That may not be perfectly accurate, but again the people we need to reach with this aren’t interested in the details.

    They call it the Death Tax, we call it the Born Rich Tax.

    Lakoff should be proud.

  • The Born Rich Tax is better known as the Paris Hilton (and friends) Tax.

  • That’s partly by design. “Aristocracies” are by definition high-falutin’.

    But I like “Born Rich” too. Or “Silver Spoon”. Has an interesting coke-head subtext to it too, which applies to our current blue-blood-in-chief.

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