The New York Times ran an editorial on Saturday, "Katrina's Assault on Washington," which highlighted the fact that our political leaders are often more interested in promoting an agenda full of tax cuts than in promoting responsible investment and shared national sacrifice. This approach, the editorial argues, must change. The editorial says, "If [political leaders] respond by passing a few emergency measures and then falling back on their plan to enact more tax cuts, America will have to confront the fact that it is stuck with leaders who neither know, nor care, how to lead." The recent disaster should be a wake-up call that it pays to invest money in our communities. This administration's focus on tax cuts over investment has left agencies and programs underfunded, and has, in a way, made it more difficult for us to respond to the what has happened on the Gulf Coast. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities expands upon this in their recent statement on the challanges Congress faces now in the wake of the hurricane.

Congress Daily reported this afternoon that despite the devastation with this week's hurricane and flooding, Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) plans to go ahead with the Congressional schedule as previously planned, which means that there will be a vote on the estate tax on Tuesday. According to Congress Daily, Frist rejected a request from Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to suspend work on the tax bill. The Senate will, therefore, move forward with their vote to repeal the estate tax. Repeal of the estate tax would gut levels of federal revenue and would hurt charities by taking away an incentive for people to give. It seems as though in a time of national devastation -- as we are experiencing right now -- it is awfully bold of Frist and Congressional leaders to move ahead with legislation that would take more money away from federal coffers (which is used to invest in national infrastructure), and instead make a move to further pad the pockets of the wealthy. Disgraceful. Sen. Baucus (D-MT), who has been the Democrats' key negotiator on the estate tax, issued the following statement regarding the vote: “I am supportive of working on repealing the estate tax, but now is not the appropriate time. The nation is calling out for the Senate to act to help those in need. We have passed an emergency spending bill, but the emergency has not subsided. People are still homeless. New Orleans is still buried in dark water. Our work is not finished. Instead of moving to the estate tax when the Senate is back in session, I encourage my colleagues to concentrate on the victims left in Hurricane Katrina’s wake.”

The Coalition for America's priorities sponsored a poll recently which measured the public's support of the estate tax. They found that 59 percent of people favor reform of the estate tax, while only 29 percent favor repeal. Democrats favor reform over repeal 65 percent to 22 percent, while Republicans favor it 55 percent to 34 percent. Press release Poll results Also check out this Tompaine.com article called The Chazer Caucus. The article reflects many of the talking points released recently by the Americans for a Fair Estate Tax Coalition.

Edwin J. Feulner, President of the Heritage Foundation, wrote an article in which he makes a hasty and overall poor effort to respond to many of the estate tax talking points of the Americans for a Fair Estate Tax coalition. In the article, he argues the estate tax is not necessary to keep the budget balanced because Congress can simply cut spending. Yet spending is actually lower now as a percentage of GDP than it was during the Reagan administration. Further, as the release of Census poverty figures today show, more Americans are in need of a helping hand than ever before. The reality is, when spending is cut, programs like food stamps and Medicaid are cut - mostly because those programs don't have constituencies who can afford powerful and well-paid lobbyists to advocate for them. When spending is cut, hard-working Americans suffer. On the other hand, if the estate tax is repealed, wealthy millionaires and billionaires get to pass on a little bit more money to their heirs, who will already inherit millions tax-free. Mr. Feulner is clear on which group he prefers the government work to help - the poor and dispondent class of millionaires. As with other arguments made by pro-repeal forces, Mr. Feulner's don't add up. This article reflects a continuation of many of the myths pro-repealers have been articulating for years. For a more accurate and honest look at the estate tax, check out Estate's Rites, which appeared last week in the American Prospect. The article shows that the money we would lose with estate tax repeal could be better spent by investing in society, adequately equiping our troops, or providing more retirement security for all Americans rather than padding the pockets even further of the already extremely wealthy.