The death of the death of the death tax could be imminent. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said yesterday it was "doubtful," that the House would consider a new or conference version of H.R. 5970, the "trifecta" bill, prior to pre-midterm adjournment. The trifecta, weighted down by a $750 billion estate tax cut, passed the House in July, but failed in the Senate by three votes on a procedural motion in early August. Per the Washington Post, "headed nowhere [is] the permanent estate tax repeal that Republicans have tried all year to push across the finish line."

We're getting reports that the White House has drawn up a "continuing resolution" that keeps the government funded if Congress, which it won't, has not passed all appropriations bills by October 1st. The CR would set funding at the lower of either the Senate or House-passed versions of each annual appropriations bills. This CR format will wreak havoc in programs that are funded by an appropriations bill that has passed at least one chamber. Congress used the same format last year to drastically cut many programs .

The transparent inadequacies of the new House rule on earmarks disclosure are enumerated in a powerful Washington Post editorial today. Noting the insufficency of disclosure, the modesty of the rule's scope and the Senate's to failure to act at all, the editorial concludes:

Columnist Allan Sloan has come out in favor of deficit figures that show the long-term consequences of our spend now-pay later fiscal policy. Today, on Marketplace: SCOTT JAGOW: We're less than two weeks from the end of the government's fiscal year and it looks like the federal budget deficit will come in about 20 percent smaller than last year, around $260 billion. Or it could be twice that amount if you do the math the way Newsweek's Allan Sloan does it. ALLAN SLOAN: $558 billion dollars, give or take a few buck for rounding errors.