Is Estate Tax Reform Dead?
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Republicans’ attempt to push through a permanent cut in the estate tax before adjourning was nothing short of a spectacular flop. Despite having sweetened the tax cut with a minimum wage hike and provisions extending a host of popular tax breaks, the Senate leadership tempted only one senator who hadn’t previously supported it: Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., gave in, but only thanks to a last-minute add-on that would have paid for the cleanup of abandoned coal mines. The defeat seems all the more glaring because it comes on the heels of two other failed attempts to get the estate tax through the Senate–one as recently as June. And yet Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., seems hardly chastened. Rather, he has exhorted his opponents to “rethink long and hard” during the four-week recess that began early today, suggesting that another vote is in the offing. All told, supporters were three votes shy of the 60 needed to advance the legislation, which passed the Hou
