PRIORITIES

New Orleans is now experiencing a third world-style refugee crisis? Hey, perfect time to cut taxes!

With Congress preparing to reconvene in early September, Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist said a vote to fully repeal the estate tax will be tops on the to-do list.

Frist, a Tennessee Republican, has not wavered publicly from statements that the either the first or second bill of the September session would be a vote on a bill to repeal the estate tax beginning in 2005 -- meaning a vote is scheduled for the week of Sept. 6.

... According to the Joint Committee on Taxation the cost of a full repeal could be as much as $300 billion.

--WebCPA.com

I appreciate Harry Reid's response:

...Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic minority leader, suggested that Republicans should drop plans to repeal the estate tax and concentrate instead on hurricane relief.

"Given the tragic and devastating events along the Gulf Coast, members of the Senate would have great difficulty explaining why we were debating the estate tax during our first days back when we know hundreds of thousands of families are suffering," Mr. Reid said in a letter to Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican majority leader....

An ad from United for a Fair Economy airs this weekend on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC:

A new TV ad featuring a frivolous heiress figure who thanks Congressional Republicans for their attempts to repeal the federal estate tax will begin airing Sept. 2 on cable stations in the Washington, D.C. area. The ad can be viewed at http://www.faireconomy.org/estatetax/heiressad....

Script of United for a Fair Economy -- Frivolous Heiress TV ad -- :30 TV

Hi, I'm London, and I just wanted to personally thank my Republican friends in Congress for trying to get rid of that mean old inheritance tax.

I already stand to inherit a fortune, and because of you, I will get millions more.

I know the government has a lot of debt and it has to cut benefits to our soldiers. But they're used to making sacrifices. I'm not. So I just wanted to say to the Republican party, thanks for watching out for me. You are so hot.

It's a pretty good ad. The timing might seem tasteless, but so is the timing of the vote.