Shrill election year claims regarding tax policy in a Democratic 110th Congress may be having as muted an effect on voters as credit-taking for the stock market surge and low unemployment. Democrats are no longer talk about rolling back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy. They are silent about whether or not to extend these cuts, which do not expire for another two years, and say they would push for higher taxes on corporations, particularly oil companies, by eliminating breaks and urging a crackdown on "loopholes," the Wall Street Journal reports.

About-face! From BNA ($): Political considerations were one of the factors the Internal Revenue Service considered when deciding to delay enforcement actions for Hurricane Katrina victims--but not the main concern, Commissioner Mark Everson said in a news briefing Oct. 27. The upcoming November elections played only a small role in the decision to once again postpone the Oct. 16 deadline for about 1.2 million victims to file their 2005 tax returns, he said.

Regardless of the outcome of the midterm elections, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) will take over as Senate Banking Committee chair or ranking member, succeeding retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD). Says the National Journal, Dodd has been a champion of the federal government’s terrorism risk insurance program and can be expected to defend it against Bush Administration attacks. He is likely to be a strong voice on behalf of consumer and investor protection and against deceptive lending and credit card marketing practices.

This is just ridiculous (emph. mine). The commissioner of internal revenue has ordered his agency to delay collecting back taxes from Hurricane Katrina victims until after the Nov. 7 elections and the holiday season, saying he did so in part to avoid negative publicity. The commissioner, Mark W. Everson, who has close ties to the White House, said in an interview that postponing collections until after the midterm elections, along with postponing notices to people who failed to file tax returns, was a routine effort to avoid casting the Internal Revenue Service in a bad light.