Cantwell's protecting her own estate, and especially those of other Seattle high tech types who were paid in MS stock during the tech boom.

What's her RealAudio stock worth?

That's good old-fashioned self-interest.

If the rich could pay the poor to die in their place, then the poor could make quite a living.

Old saying.

And Murray is also protecting Cantwell's estate? That's some serious Senate collegiality right there. Or is it that she fears that her constituents will punish her for not giving Bill Gates' estate a big tax break?

Why did Tester vote for it?

Christ. Allow me to vent for a moment:

I have a client. She is a wingnut and what's worse, she thinks it's acceptable to mouth off to anybody about what Fox News got her fauxraged about today.

Well one day last fall, I called to talk about a Very Important Matter and instead of talking about that, I got treated to a rant about how Obama was going to win the election and he was going to allow the estate tax to be re-instated and she'd have nothing to leave to her children.

Now, I don't know her personal finances but the more she yammered on about it, the more I could tell she didn't have the slightest fucking clue (remarkable because otherwise she is a sharp businesswoman) about how the estate tax works. Furthermore, it was clear that if she did get nailed by the re-instated estate tax, it would be because somebody didn't plan well for it.

This is just like Joe the Not-A-Plumber getting all worked up over the 'confiscatory' tax he might have to pay one day on his imaginary plumbing empire.

FSM save us from the ignorant rabble who continually fall for the FUD peddled by the right-wing noise machine.

...oh and this woman owns a business which depends A LOT on people having disposable income. So you'd think that maybe she would be pissed at the GOP for putting the economy in the tank which has caused her business to drop by 50% or more.

Nope. She'd rather be poor and have Rethuglicans in charge rather than prosper under Democrats. Fucking fool.

Good rant, r€nato.

Actually, Bill Gates doesn't want the estate tax repealed and has given most of his wealth to his foundation. Bill's father, William H. Gates, Sr., wrote a 2004 book about why the estate tax should stay in place, "Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes" (Beacon Press). My son interviewed Gates, Sr. about his book in '04 on WTUL, the Tulane U. radio station, and it was obvious from the interview that keeping the estate tax is a big priority for the Gates family.

Right you are, Donald. I should have asked whether Murray was afraid that her constituents will punish her for not giving Bill Gates' estate a big tax break that Gates himself does not want.

OK, fixed now.

Gates is in a class with just a few peers. He can give away almost all of his wealth and his kids will still be very well set. But there are literally thousands of Microsoft millionaires in the area that this bill could effect, otherwise liberal folks that give a lot of money to local democrats. That's where Cantwell and Murray have their base.

I don't care about the Microsoft millionaires. You look at the demographics of Washington and Cantwell and Murray are F#@$ing their middle income base, even when BillG Sr. would give them all the air cover in the world.

Having attended BillG Sr.'s pro-estate tax events at Microsoft, I can tell you they didn't need to do this for Microsoft folks.

Where this is coming from is the Seattle Times. With the P_I dead, and Blethen, the reactionary who owns the Seattle Times, making his dwindling inheritance a one-issue election every time, they are seeking to defuse the Times. What cowards.

Why did Tester vote for it? I would bet that his rural constituents believe that they are the "small farmers" who would supposedly be hurt. That belief is very firm among most farmers, no matter how far from the truth it may be for them.

They, too have fallen for what Fox and the Repubs are telling them.
Oh, and have you ever seen the direct mail that registered Repubs get? On visiting my elderly widowed mother recently, I picked up her mail for her, and was appalled at the lies and outright crass evil falsehoods she gets - they go on for several pages stirring up fear with lies. Yes, I censored it - I threw out the most obvious right at the mailbox. But it was a drop in the bucket.

Remember how happy we all were when Patty Murray, in her running shoes, and Maria Cantwell won senate seats in Washington? Oy.

Other than Barbara Boxer*, is there truly a reliable progressive female in the Senate?

Feinstein, Lincoln, Landrieu? God no

McCaskill, Murray, Cantwell? in the Bayh caucus

Stabenower? Not sure

Who am I forgetting?

*B-box, of course, will always have the stain of acting like an arrogant, dismissive jackass while campaigning for Lieberman

Of course, the number of reliable progressive male democratic senators is also distressingly thin. Don't mean to come off as sexist.

I always enjoy hearing people piss and moan about the estate tax. Usually, most of the people that hate it will never be subjected to it in the first place. Otherwise if they are, I tell them about a valuable capitalist tool used to ameliorate the estate tax - it's called life insurance. Nothing socialistic about it.

The family business that those Washington Senators might be protecting: Nordstroms.

Ok...I'm in Seattle, and I work at MSFT, though I'm worth about 0.003% of BillG's total. Even that has me more comfortable than my parents could have dreamed.

I'm pissed at Murray and Cantwell, and I'm going to ask them why they voted for this...there's no good reason for any Democrat to do so.

Oh, and it's "Nordstrom", not "Nordstroms".

My guess is the Washington Cantwell and Murray are pandering to is the ranchers and farmers in Yakima, the Tri-Cities, and Spokane.

"Other than Barbara Boxer*, is there truly a reliable progressive female in the Senate?"

Barbara Mikulski?

All you have to do--ALL you have to do to avoid the estate tax is to transfer your wealth (your beautiful farm, your *choke* little strip-mining business) to your heirs while you're alive.
It's only the greedy old bastards who hang onto it with their clawed liver-spotted hands that make their worthless wastrel children pay the estate tax.

Rich people buy enough life insurance to pay for the estate taxes. It's not that hard to do.

"My guess is the Washington Cantwell and Murray are pandering to is the ranchers and farmers in Yakima, the Tri-Cities, and Spokane."

My guess is those ranchers would rather endure a hoof and mouth epidemic, on the heels of a mad cow outbreak, than vote for a democrat.

Mikulski is an aggressive fighter for the little guy once every six years for a month or two - the rest of the time she oscillates between nameless and pernicious. You've forgotten New York's new junior Senator Kirsten Gillibrand - way to the right of Hillary Clinton, but without the competence.

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