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Yet another example of why Thomas Friedman is bad/utterly useless for public debate in America.
I cannot wait for the day when the NYTimes starts charging for its editorials, sparing many from exposure to Friedman's drivel.
If I get another e-mail from someone I know directing me to read a "really interesting" Friedman column, I'm really going to lose it.
For a good laugh at Friedman's expense, check out:
http://theamericanmastodon.blogspot.com/2005/05/i-think-tomorrow- is-going-to-be.html
Posted at June 22, 2005 10:39 AM in response to He Must Have Thought Them Up Himself!
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"Let’s hope it’s a cliff enough Democrats can resist jumping off of."
Keep dreaming my friend. As unbelievable as it appears to the vast majority of TPM Cafe regulars, the estate tax repeal fight is all but lost.
It's a major victory for the K Street Project. "Small" business trade associations have been so thoroughly infiltrated by conservative anti-tax activists that conservative wet dreams like estate tax repeal have been eleveated to the level of actual policy advocacy. To their credit, beyond putting estate tax repeal on the legislative agendas of their respective trade associations, they also managed to pull off a pretty stunning PR victory by turning average Americans against a tax they would never have paid.
For too long, too many Democrats didn't actually make an argument about the fairness of the estate tax, instead opting to appear more reasonable by offering to exempt estates for all but the wealthiest. How they oppose this now is beyond me. This is after all what many centrist Dems have suggested as a fair compromise.
On another note, does anyone hold out any hope that by eliminating another widely disliked provision of tax code, the GOP-ers are unwittingly contributing to improvements in the perception of the public who believes they bear an unfair tax burden? Probably not, but here's to hoping they are.
Posted at June 22, 2005 10:19 AM in response to Estate Tax Follies
