You know, this "sunset provisions" bullshit has gotten really thick. Every time I hear "sunset provisions" it means "We're going to do this thing that's so fucked up we have to lie to you by claiming it's temporary."

House Passes Permanent Estate Tax Repeal
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 14, 2005; Page A04

The House voted 272 to 162 yesterday to permanently repeal the estate tax, throwing the issue to the Senate where negotiations have begun on a deep and permanent estate tax cut that can pass this year, even if it falls short of full repeal.

The House vote pitted repeal proponents, who held that a tax on inheritances is fundamentally unfair, against Democrats, who questioned how Congress could support a tax cut largely for the affluent that would cost $290 billion over 10 years, in the face of record budget deficits.

"This is reverse Robin Hood," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "We're taking money from the middle class and giving it to the super-rich."

"The death of a family member should not be a taxable event, period," said Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.), the bill's sponsor.

By a 194 to 238 vote, the House rejected a Democratic counteroffer, which would have shielded $3.5 million of an estate's value from taxation, enough to exempt 99.7 percent of estates from the inheritance tax, according to the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. Members then approved the measure, strongly backed by the White House, that would make a full repeal permanent. The repeal is scheduled to take effect in 2010, then disappear in 2011.