Replies

But how do you explain the "get what you can" approach to the education bill (vouchers tossed overboard almost immediately), on the tax cuts (phased in reductions, sunsets on some reductions, smaller rate cuts than proposed), acquiescence on the pork Farm bill, acquiescence on the CFR bill, and yet, on the estate tax, a strange unwillingness to compromise and strike a deal.

The education bill was a good one, IMO. Bush didn't ask for vouchers until the schools had been measured for 3 years. He got everything else. If the schools are failing in 2-3 years, he will get the vouchers.
The sunsets on the tax cuts are all part of this same stuff with eliminating the estate tax. It's probably easier to eliminate the sunset provisions one-by-one than to try to eliminate all of them at once. And the estate tax is one of the worst sunsets - the tax would be gone in 2009 and come back in 2010. Can you imagine the number of deaths on 12/31/09??

I appreciate your spin on the President's successful compromises. It doesn't explain the unwillingness to compromise here. It looks to me like the Republicans didn't want to pass a repeal of the estate tax. They wanted to offer a bill that the Dems wouldn't accept, in order to make it an issue. Posturing. It might make strategic sense. I am sure they have better polling data than I have, but let's not delude ourselves here on the sidelines. It doesn't take a PhD to recognize political posturing like this.