Mark,

Spin, spin, spin. Look, the article pretty succinctly summed up the issue:

The maneuver was aimed at defusing the minimum wage increase as a campaign issue for Democrats while using the popularity of the increase to achieve the Republican Party's longtime goal of permanently cutting estate taxes.

This isn't about compromise. There was no back room deal that was done to get Republican support for a minimum wage increase in exchange for something else. Republicans control the congress - why is it necessary to include an estate tax issue in the same bill? No compromise is necessary.

The fact is, more than 3/4 of the country supports a minimum wage increase, and considering that over the past 6 years every attempt to get a floor vote on an increase was thwarted, the Republican leadership knows they can't let Democratic challengers in close house races make a campaign issue out of it.

You're not fooling anyone with your spin - people who read political blogs see past it. I don't really know why you bother. Honestly would work a little better for you - in a certain sense, this was a useful ploy. Cynical, but possibly smart. Nonetheless, the "values" ploys don't seem to be working (flag burning, gay marriage, stem cells) - people see past it. I suspect this might backfire as well.

"If all your talk of helping the poor is just a means of generating donations from filthy rich white liberals,..."

What the hell are you talking about? How does one relate to another. Fact is, the correct minimum wage does not sustain the average live-at-home teen, much less anyone trying to support themselves. To weld this long overdue legislation to just another obscene tax discount to the financial fortunate, is breath taking in its callousness. Fortunately, even the most obtuse will see this as another example of GOP voodoo economics and see realize that this admin. could care less about fair play.

"3/4ths of Americans support increasing the min wage? According to what poll?

And Mark's comment: If all your talk of helping the poor is just a means of generating donations from filthy rich white liberals,..." is 100% correct.

If libs were truly concerned about helping minorities and the poor they would oppose increasing the min wage which is really just a govt mandated wage and price control. Every peer reviewed economic study ever done has discredited raising the min wage. Every time labor costs increase businesses 1. hire less leading to less job which hurts entry level workers the most and 2. pass on higher labor costs to the consumer via higher prices which hurts the working poor and people on fixed incomes the most. The very same constitutncies the Dems claim to represent. Mark was 100% correct in his statment. The only reason libs support raisning the mn wage is to pander to their ignorant base and engage in class warfare. That's what Socialists like Kennedy do.

As to the death tax. Killing it would primarily benefit average Americans not the "rich." Here are the major reasons to support killing the Death Tax.

As I write in my book "Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies"

The vast majority of Americans oppose the death tax. Two-thirds of the American people believe that the death tax should be abolished. The Luntz Research Companies, whose clients include several Republicans and national media outlets, and Global Strategy Group, Inc., which works with the Democratic National Committee and media outlets, conducted a survey of 2500 voters. They found that opposition to the death tax was pervasive and cut across political party and economic lines.

Survey participants were asked to agree or disagree with the following statement: "Inheritance taxes are an extreme form of taxation. The tax rate, as high as 50 percent, is higher than even the highest federal income tax rate -- and that's unfair." Seventy-nine percent said they "agree" with this statement, while the remaining 17 percent disagreed.

Nine out of 10 Americans don’t inherit a dime! The tax punishes savings and has compliance costs that are higher than the taxes collected. According to James P. Smith, “Unequal Wealth Incentives to Save,” -Rand Corp., only 8% of wealth is inherited in our country. 92% is earned. Thus, by not abolishing the 50% tax you actually penalize the overwhelming majority of Americans who have built their fortunes without inheriting a dime.

The Death tax violates the 5th Amendment. According to the 5th Amendment, an individual in the United States has a God-given right to private property. "…nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." In other words, liberals can't, according to the law, take from one group arbitrarily, and give to another group. Whether they justify such confiscatory actions as "fair" is insignificant. To quote the economist and noted author, Frederic Bastiat from his famous book The Law: “The law can be an instrument of equalization only as it takes from some persons and gives to other persons. When the law does this, it is an instrument of plunder.”

The Estate tax is rooted in Communist ideology. Karl Marx was a leading original proponent of the confiscation of land or estate tax in The Communist Manifesto. Edward Bellamy, an influential Socialist, in his book Looking Backward, describes a utopian society without “private property to speak of, no disputes between citizens, over business relations, no real estate to divide and no debts to collect.” Bellamy also advocated a society where there is no inherited unanimously opposed the repeal of the death tax.

Liberal-Democrats claim that repeal of the death tax would decrease tax revenues is false. In a report issued by the Joint Committee on Taxation 2002 liberals opposed to repealing the death tax asserted that doing so would result in a reduction in government revenues by more than 150% of what the tax now collects. However, this assertion is fallacious because the committee fails to use a “dynamic” scoring model that correctly estimates the economic and budget gains of repeal. In the past, this same commission also suggested that raising the tax by 50% would increase revenues collected in 1987 from $26 billion in 1985 to $65 billion in 1991. However, $25 billion was raised in 1991.

The death tax hurts the economy by giving wealthy people incentive to avoid the punitive double tax by sheltering the money. Putting their money in tax-free shelters reduces capital available to finance business investment, which reduces job creation and the overall standard of living. The people that get hurt are poor and middle class individuals who would benefit from the jobs and opportunities normally created by capital and human investment. (Note: Accountants and tax attorneys continue to prosper.)

The death tax hurts many more family run small businesses. Family farms that have been maintained for generations must liquidate the assets of the business because, upon death of the owner, they can’t afford the tax due the government. The reduction in human capital (of the families who have run the businesses and know them best) resulting from these forced sales is another negative consequence of the tax.

The tax is a punitive tax on income already taxed. The tax was collected first on the income when it was originally earned. Why should any individual who invests his money-which has already been taxed when it was earned-be taxed again when he dies?

The death tax is unconstitutional. Unlike the federal income tax, which taxes income directly, the death tax is a direct tax (up to 50%) on the value of the private property that is inherited. Our Constitution guarantees that the government cannot lay claim to private property without either "due process" or “just compensation." By imposing a tax on private property the government is in essence stealing private property.

The death tax unfairly penalizes those who invest and save while giving unfair advantage to those who consume. Since the tax rates are so excessive on inherited wealth, individuals who desire to pass on a family business or home to other family members are discouraged from doing so. Instead they are given incentive to spend as much as they can before they die. The tax encourages excessive consumption at the expense of family members who would otherwise benefit from the inheritance.

The death tax violates government’s primary role: to protect individual property rights. While governments do have an obligation to create a fair business environment and ensure that individuals have equal opportunity, they have no right to be the arbiters of results. By claiming that inheritance taxes "level the playing field," they assume that it is legally and morally permissible to take property from one group and distribute it to another. Our government is charged with the duty of protecting individual property rights not violating them.

Gregg Jackson
Pundit Review Radio

Does anyone care about the collosal national debt anymore? Why are we cutting taxes during a war?