{"id":1418,"date":"2006-11-20T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-20T18:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actec.org\/?post_type=capital-letter&p=1418"},"modified":"2024-01-03T13:38:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T18:38:29","slug":"clues-to-estate-tax-legislation-in-a-democratic-congress","status":"publish","type":"capital-letter","link":"https:\/\/www.actec.org\/capital-letter\/clues-to-estate-tax-legislation-in-a-democratic-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Clues to Estate Tax Legislation in a Democratic Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2006 election placed the 110th Congress in Democratic hands, while the last estate tax efforts of the Republican-led 109th Congress may provide clues to what estate tax legislation will eventually look like.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Readers Who Follow Washington Developments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elections can alter much but clarify little.  This year\u2019s election was no exception.  Clearly, the election focused on Iraq and President Bush.  Secondarily but importantly in many states and districts, the election was about corruption and legislative stagnation, with many voters also concerned about immigration and rising tuition costs, health care costs, energy costs, and interest rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq, however, is not principally an ideological issue.  We suspected that when it made allies of the conservative administration of President Bush and the liberal government of Prime Minister Tony Blair.  Now we have seen confirmation, as the election has produced Republican and Democratic caucuses that are both more conservative than their predecessors, even though the conservative party \u2013 the Republican Party \u2013 lost ground.  Republicans in Congress as a whole are more conservative because many moderates lost, and Democrats in Congress as a whole are more conservative because many moderates won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The election, in short, may have been less about ideology than about management<\/strong> \u2013 management of the war, management of congressional ethics, management of the legislative agenda, and management of some federal agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is any validity to that assessment, then it should follow that there will be enormous pressure to get things done in the 110th Congress that convenes in January 2007.  Democrats will be under pressure to deliver good management of the legislative agenda to show the American people that they were right in claiming that they could do what the Republicans couldn\u2019t.  Republicans will be under pressure to be a model of cooperativeness to show that it was Democratic obstructionism after all that prevented the people\u2019s businesses from moving forward these past several years.  Only by delivering in these ways (one would think) can Democrats hope to build on their momentum and Republicans hope to reclaim momentum, moving into the all important 2008 presidential and congressional campaigns.  There will be no incumbent President or Vice President on the ballot for the first time in 56 years and, in light of the closely-divided nation and competitiveness of the parties that the 2006 election has confirmed, the 2008 presidential election is likely to be a true jump ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) should be expected to be very hands-on, very visible, and very much engaged with the White House and with Republican congressional leaders.  She is often said to be more liberal than most Democrats in the House, but she is where she is in large part because of the strong support of \u201cBlue Dogs\u201d and other moderate Democrats.  Her party will want her to succeed and to that end will be under great pressure to demonstrate a resolve, if not even an uncharacteristic discipline, in mastering its agenda.  Democrats who have gotten the \u201cmanagement\u201d message may, at least initially, try to govern from the center and tackle legislation that is achievable, rather than firing off ideological messages that bog down in the Senate or are vetoed by the President.  Even Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) (who, like Pelosi, was portrayed as \u201cscary\u201d by Republicans during the campaign and has now called for reinstatement of the military draft) will be much more of a leader than an ideologue on tax issues, especially at first.  The departure of the current chairman, Bill Thomas (R-CA), and other senior Republican committee members will give him even more opportunities for inclusive leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate may be harder to predict.  Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will have his work cut out for him to reduce the tension that has characterized recent Senate debates, including debates over taxes.  The retirement of Republican Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) will provide somewhat of a fresh start to help diffuse the tension, but the Senate presents some unique challenges, including the one-vote margin of control, a 60-vote requirement to take up and \u201ccall the question\u201d on most legislation, and the supercharged agenda of judicial and other nominations.  Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) has a history of working cooperatively with his counterpart Charles Grassley (R-IA)<\/a>, but he has not always had an easy time with his Democratic colleagues.In the first days after the election, nearly everyone is saying the right things about bipartisanship, common ground, openness, reaching out, and collegiality.  We should not need reminding, however, that the folks we elect tend to say that after every<\/strong> election.  Some optimists say it will be different this time, partly for the reasons summarized above.  Most of us want to wait and see, knowing that the best-intended cooperation is always subject to enormous centrifugal forces tending to drive it apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrat leaders have publicly cited \u201cSix for \u201906,\u201d \u2013 the six priorities of the \u201cfirst hundred hours\u201d \u2013 legislative hours, that is \u2013 of the new Congress:<\/p>\n\n\n\n