House Dems Offer a Solution to the Tax Bill Dispute

However, in the process they could end up killing the whole thing:

Moments ago, House Rules Committee chair Louise Slaughter (D., N.Y.) told reporters “we are going to put an extra vote in” to the rule governing debate on the tax deal.

House Democrats say there will likely be a total of four votes tonight related to the tax bill:

1) A vote to amend the existing rule to include a simple up-or-down vote on the tax deal.

2) A vote on the rule itself

3) A vote on the Pomeroy amendment, which would increase estate tax rates from the levels in the Senate bill.

4) A vote on final passage of the bill.

If 1-4 all pass, the bill would go to the Senate, where it is likely dead in the water. If the Pomeroy amendment fails, and the Senate version of the bill is passed unchanged, it would go directly to the president’s desk.

Pomeroy, who was ousted in the November election, comes from a state full of family farms (ND) and those farms often have to be sold to pay the estate taxes when the farmer dies. Those people judged "rich" by the Democrats, which include many small business owners as well as farmers with assets that put them over the estate tax limit, have worked their entire lives to build those business and have paid taxes all along the way. Yet Pomeroy and his ilk just can't abide the idea those assets should be passed on to the heirs instead of a majority of that wealth going to the government, which had done nothing to earn or build that wealth.

GOP Senators have already indicated that any changes to the proposed 35% estate tax rate (down from the 55% that would have kicked in on January 1) will kill the whole bill.  Many ousted liberals like Pomeroy have no problem with that.  They're quite willing to punish the taxpayers who voted them out of office.

Stay tuned.