Thursday, April 09, 2009

Death Blow   [Veronique de Rugy]

The Wall Street Journal's Review & Outlook section reports on a tiny free-market victory this morning:

We'll take pro-growth victories wherever we can find them these days, and last week saw a small one in the U.S. Senate, of all places. The Members voted 51-48 to cut permanently the death tax rate to 35% and exempt all estates of less than $10 million per couple ($5 million for a single taxpayer) from any tax. President Obama wants a 45% rate with only a $7 million exemption.

Every Republican voted for the lower rate, and so did 10 Democrats.

Of course, many were angry. But no one was as upset as Harry Reid (which gives me great pleasure, I must admit):

Perhaps this explains why Majority Leader Harry Reid blew a gasket during the floor debate, calling the death-tax amendment by Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) and Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.) "outrageous," a "stunning act of hypocrisy," and a tax cut for those "at the very top of the food chain."

Then he actually said: "We can only turn the page from recession to recovery if we watch every single taxpayer dollar the way families watch every dollar in their budget." We'd say Mr. Reid was being deliberately ironic, but Harry doesn't do irony. He's an outrage man. And speaking of which, he was at that very moment working to pass a 2010 budget outline that includes record spending and trillions of dollars in new debt.

While the Senate vote is good news, the fact that it feels like victory is a sign that things are really tough out there: 35 percent is a long way from what the estate tax rate should be: 0.

Read the whole thing here.

04/09 11:10 AMShare