Most Senators want to resurrect the estate tax.
They made it official yesterday by soundly rejecting, 59 to 39, a proposal to permanently abolish the estate
tax.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) tried to kill the estate tax once and for all by attaching his proposal to the unemployment benefits extension that the Senate finally passed on Wednesday.
DeMint argued that his proposal was "not a tax cut" but simply a
continuation of current policy since Congress let the tax lapse this year. He got two Democrats to support him: Blanche L. Lincoln of
Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
However, three Republicans — Maine's two Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, and George Voinovich of Ohio — opposed permanently burying the estate tax.
They agreed with Senate Finance Committee member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who said
abolishing the estate tax would add "upwards of $1 trillion" to the national
debt while benefiting only "a few hundred of our wealthiest Americans."
As I've said many times this Congressional
session, stay tuned. And yes, I am seriously considering having that phrase
discreetly tattooed somewhere.
Related posts:
- Estate tax inching along
- The Boss' estate tax bonanza
- Texas billionaire vs. the estate tax
- A 'responsible' estate tax
- Estate tax is still dead, but dual options for heirs being
considered - Senate pulls the estate tax plug
- The estate tax, a Dickens of a law
- Death and taxes will continue
- A tax by any other name
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