Cynicism of the moment.
Even as our troops are in battle risking their necks for our country, the Republican Party is pushing a tax cut for the rich on the floor of the United States Senate. Senator John Kyl of Arizona is trying to push an amendment through to speed up the repeal of the estate tax. (*) It’s too bad that the Republican Party can’t just step back for a while and take a breath. Apparently they were tempted to do this now because of a procedural matter that allows them to bypass any filibuster, and because the news media will be preoccupied. This amendment should be defeated, and not just because of the cynical time at which it is offered. Serious reform of the estate tax is a good idea, but outright repeal is the wrong policy. Speeding up the repeal is a bad idea.
Call your Senators. (†) I just called mine.
Update: 25 March 2003: We lost that vote, but five senators changed their votes to the right policy. (‡) We are making progress in the fight to keep the estate tax. It is necessary to keep the estate tax, after all appropriate reform, to preserve the middle class in its dominant position in our society.