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Friday, July 28, 2006
GOP on the Verge of Imploding
Drama continues to unfold on Capitol Hill as the hot summer heat seems to be getting to members of Congress. We posted yesterday of a "showdown" meeting of members of the long-stalled pension reform conference committee that took place last night. But the meeting did not go as conference chairman Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) planned as House GOP conferees boycotted the meeting
Enzi called the meeting to force a vote on whether to strip a package of tax cuts (callled "extenders") from the pension bill or not and bring an end to an impasse that has delayed the reform bill in its final stages. But the strategy backfired as only two House conferees, both Democrats, showed up for the meeting. It now appears as though the entire pension reform agreement may be about to collapse. House and Senate leaders are rumored to be taking one more stab at compromise today before the House recesses until September.
The effort to pull out the extenders package is being undertaken in an effort to give the Senate one more chance at passing a roll-back of the estate tax this year. Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) hopes by holding the popular extenders package until September and adding an estate tax cut to it, he will finally be able to push through another tax cut for the richest of the rich in the Senate. He has failed at three other attempts this year to do so.
More info will be posted here as events play out in Washington today.
Posted by Adam Hughes
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