Blogs Derek's Tax Blog No Permanent Estate Tax Bill This Year
There likely will be no permanent Estate Tax Bill this year. Instead, members of the House Ways and Means Committee hope to move legislation that extends current estate tax levels for one year. The Dow Jones Newswire article describes the problem this way:
But House Democrats are blanching at the $256 billion, 10-year cost of making the 2009 policy permanent. As millions of low-income and middle-income Americans are struggling to climb out of the recession, they don't want to cast a vote in favor of what amounts to a huge tax cut to the richest families.
If you recall a few weeks ago we were expecting the bill at anytime. We waited. On Monday a number of news outlets were reporting that the bill was going to be introduced this week. However, just yesterday we learned about a split in the Democratic caucus that was causing a delay until after Thanksgiving. Now the official position is that high unemployment & budget deficits, two things that President Obama has been talking about lately, have knocked the permanent bill clear off the table and we are going to have to settle for a band aid 1-year extension. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, (D., N.D.) said he was among a "distinct minority" in a closed door meeting of the House Ways and Means committee arguing for a permanent fix. (From the Dow Jones Newswire Article.)
The Dow Jones article also quotes my Representative:"At a time when you have 10.2% unemployment--are you crazy?" said Rep. Jim McDermott (D., Wash.) He said that uncertainty about whether the Senate would be able to pass a permanent estate tax fix has given many House Democrats pause.
"We're all going to be elected again in a year. The Senate is looking at five years from now, so they're not thinking of that," McDermott said.
You may recall that Representative McDermott of Seattle has his own legislation in this debate.
We still don't know what the Senate is going to come up with, but apparently they are preparing end-of-year legislation that extends business tax cuts, health insurance for the unemployed, and expiring tariff preferences.
Here is a list of all of the items that House Democrats apparently feel are higher priorities than a permanent estate tax bill (just from this article):
- health care reform
- boosting jobs with new infrastructure spending and renewing tax breaks for businesses
- pay-as-you-go rules (controls the deficit)
- child tax credit
- tax breaks for the poor and the middle class
Does anyone else get the feeling this is loosing momentum?