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This is apparently only in the online edition of Time Magazine, which is too bad - more people should see this. In this age of all spin all the time, I suppose it was inevitable, but this is uniquely shameless and bizarre. It also adds one more item to the long list of awful things GOP Congress people will do to get their way - now it's digging for weeks-old corpses to show that SOMEBODY needed that estate tax repeal for their pathetic, needy heirs.
Seems they haven't found EVEN ONE rich Katrina corpse yet. Too bad they can't do a negotiation that would reflect their true views of human value, say 10,000 poor black corpses equals one rich white corpse. Guess not - those rich GOP donors are priceless. They're still looking. I'm sure we'll hear about it if they finally find a ripe "volunteer character witness" for their estate tax cut pitch.
Seems they haven't found EVEN ONE rich Katrina corpse yet. Too bad they can't do a negotiation that would reflect their true views of human value, say 10,000 poor black corpses equals one rich white corpse. Guess not - those rich GOP donors are priceless. They're still looking. I'm sure we'll hear about it if they finally find a ripe "volunteer character witness" for their estate tax cut pitch.
Looking for a Corpse to Make a Case
Senators look for a wealthy casualty of Katrina as evidence against the estate tax
Federal troops aren't the only ones looking for bodies on the Gulf Coast. On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions' legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky's voice mail: "[Arizona Sen.] Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with."
If legislative ambulance chasing looks like a desperate measure, for the backers of repealing the estate tax, these are desperate times. Just three weeks ago, their long-sought goal of repeal seemed within reach, but Katrina dashed their hopes when Republican leaders put off an expected vote. After hearing from Sessions, Apolinsky, an estate tax lawyer who says his firm includes three multi-billionaires among its clients, mobilized the American Family Business Institute, a Washington-based group devoted to estate tax repeal. They reached out to members along the Gulf Coast to hunt for the dead.
It's been hard. Only a tiny percentage of people are affected by the estate tax—in 2001 only 534 Alabamans were subject to it. And for Hill backers of repeal, that's only part of the problem. Last year, the tax brought in $24.8 billion to the federal government. With Katrina's cost soaring, estate tax opponents need to find a way to make up the potential lost income. For now, getting repeal back on the agenda may depend on Apolinsky and his team of estate-sniffing sleuths, who are searching Internet obituaries among other places. Has he found any victims of both the hurricane and the estate tax? "Not yet," Apolinsky says. "But I'm still looking."—with reporting by Amanda Ripley/Washington
Senators look for a wealthy casualty of Katrina as evidence against the estate tax
Federal troops aren't the only ones looking for bodies on the Gulf Coast. On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions' legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky's voice mail: "[Arizona Sen.] Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with."
If legislative ambulance chasing looks like a desperate measure, for the backers of repealing the estate tax, these are desperate times. Just three weeks ago, their long-sought goal of repeal seemed within reach, but Katrina dashed their hopes when Republican leaders put off an expected vote. After hearing from Sessions, Apolinsky, an estate tax lawyer who says his firm includes three multi-billionaires among its clients, mobilized the American Family Business Institute, a Washington-based group devoted to estate tax repeal. They reached out to members along the Gulf Coast to hunt for the dead.
It's been hard. Only a tiny percentage of people are affected by the estate tax—in 2001 only 534 Alabamans were subject to it. And for Hill backers of repeal, that's only part of the problem. Last year, the tax brought in $24.8 billion to the federal government. With Katrina's cost soaring, estate tax opponents need to find a way to make up the potential lost income. For now, getting repeal back on the agenda may depend on Apolinsky and his team of estate-sniffing sleuths, who are searching Internet obituaries among other places. Has he found any victims of both the hurricane and the estate tax? "Not yet," Apolinsky says. "But I'm still looking."—with reporting by Amanda Ripley/Washington
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