Death Tax Repeal Fails, 57-41

We needed 60 to move to a vote.

The details aren't up, but Andy Roth picks out the key votes.

Sen. Frist had this on his VOLPAC blog earlier:

I am reminded of a case in Williamson County, TN. I know of a family there that inherited from their dad the 167 acre farm that they grew up working on. The kids considered keeping the farm … until they got the 'inheritance tax' bill, which typically runs 40 to 50% of the current market value of a property in excess of $1 million.

The children needed to come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars within mere months of their dad’s death. Like so many other families who inherit the family farm, they simply couldn’t do that without selling the land.

This tax is flat WRONG, so on Thursday, June 8, I will have the Senate vote on a full and permanent repeal of the death tax.

To me it seems like a self-evidently unfair tax. I don't know why senators don't take more heat for supporting it. They tax you on your assets all your life, and then them again when you die? It's a terrible disincentive for people to save and invest and pass anything along to their children, and disincentives for saving and investing are bad for the economy and prosperity in general. Sigh.

Check here for details later.

UPDATE: Andy has lots of death tax reaction, including this interesting snap-shot of the Dow upon the vote.

This is a good thought:

And the next time some smart social reformer demands you watch his heart bleed for all the small local businesses Wal-Mart is killing, just ask him -- "so what do you think the interitance tax is doing?"