LAT: Effort to Repeal Estate Tax Said to Be Faltering

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Now, with the Senate poised to vote as early as this week, even some of the most ardent supporters of estate tax repeal predict they will come up short. Some of them are pushing an alternative that would reduce but not eliminate the tax.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), a longtime estate tax critic, is urging a tactical retreat because he believes that support for permanent repeal is eroding at a time of big budget deficits. And he fears that the political climate would be even less hospitable after the 2006 elections if Democrats win control of either the House or the Senate.

"Our political position could be dramatically negatively impacted this fall and after the next presidential election," Kyl said recently.
.....
Either way, the upcoming Senate debate is a pivotal moment for a coalition of wealthy families, small-business lobbyists and farm groups that has already accomplished a remarkable thing over the last decade: making a national political issue out of repealing a tax that applies to less than 1% of all taxpayers, including some of the richest people in the U.S.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-estatetax4jun04,0,6852939.story?coll=la-home-headlines

In related news-

Senate Democrats Focus on Arizona
According to the New York Times, Democrats "are suddenly focusing on Arizona, once-hostile territory that could prove crucial to their hopes of recapturing the Senate this year. What once seemed a long shot to Democrats -- unseating Senator Jon Kyl, the two-term incumbent Republican -- has in recent weeks shifted to the realm of the possible."

"His Democratic challenger, Jim Pederson, a wealthy shopping mall developer, seems to be benefiting from the national decline in support for Republicans and President Bush. Mr. Pederson is using the dominant issue here, illegal immigration, to try to make inroads among centrist and independent voters."

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2006/06/04/senate_democrats_focus_on_arizona.html

[Gman]

1. The estate tax will not pass because

it will crash millions of estate plans for people that may not be in the top 1%, but the top 5%. The top 5% people know their heirs will incur substantial capital gains taxes that would be much higher than the estate tax. So the estate tax will stay in place.

[joefree1]

2. I ain't in the 1% and you aren't either

And most Mericans are realizing that it's very unlikely that any of us have a snowballs chance in hell of getting into the top 15% either.

[Hosnon]

3. I have no problem with redistributing the wealth at the extremes of

economic theory.

[ShockediSay]

4. Who needs vested aristocracy

in our so-called democracy.

The Bush family seemed to do OK w/ the Estate Tax in full force, as did the Kennedy family.

We need to put a bigger dent in our national debt to give these types greater favoritism? Let's get real.