THIS IS NOT ->Delawareliberal

The Senate is scheduled next week to take up legislation by Arizona Republican Jon Kyl that would permanently repeal the estate tax on the wealthiest Americans. If enacted, Kyl's bill would plunge the government another trillion dollars into the red during the first decade (2011-2021) that it would be in effect.

Harold Meyerson wrote a very informative editorial on this in today's Washington Post.

The Estate Tax Repeal legislation is not only fiscally irresponsible, it is also immoral, as the money will have to come from somewhere, and guess who will be hit with higher taxes...

$500 billion is a lot of money to drain from public coffers just when boomers are going onto Social Security and Medicare and the number of employers providing health insurance, if present trends continue, might have dropped to a virtuous handful. To cover those and other needs, Congress will either plunge us deeper into debt or increase some other levies -- payroll taxes, say -- that will come out of the pockets of the 99 percent of Americans whom the estate tax doesn't touch.

It appears as though most Democrats are poised to block this, using the filibuster if they must. But a "moderate" Republican is trying to peel off 6 or so Democrats to provide a filibuster-proof number so it can pass. If the DLC's Tom Carper is one of the 6, he should be ejected from the party. - kos diary by adigal