Senate Kills Estate Tax Bill

Normally, this would be cause for unbridled celebration. However, Republicans had cowardly and self-servingly tacked an estate tax reduction onto a bill designed to raise the minimum wage. So good legislation had to die in order for a terrible bill never to live.

AP via Wash Po:

WASHINGTON — A Republican election-year effort to fuse a cut in inheritance taxes on multimilllion-dollar estates with the first minimum wage increase in nearly a decade was rejected by the Senate late Thursday.

Republicans needed 60 votes to advance their bill, which links a $2.10 increase in the $5.15 federal minimum wage over three years to reductions an estate taxes next decade. Passed by the House last Saturday, the bill got a 56-42 vote, four votes short of succeeding.

For Republicans, the combination could have neutralized a Democratic campaign issue while also advancing an estate tax cut, a priority that may have an uncertain future if the GOP loses seats in Congress in November’s election.

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