From Holden:

That Bill Frist, he’s doing a heckuva job.

Senators voted Thursday to reject a Republican effort to shrink taxes on inherited estates during this election year.

[snip]

A 57-41 vote fell three votes short of advancing the bill.

[snip]

Frist would still like to deliver a bill to the president reducing the estate tax this summer, before a midterm election where control of Congress is at stake.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he expected the estate tax to find its way into an unrelated bill headed for the president’s desk sometime this year.

Under current law this year, the first $2 million of a person’s estate or $4 million of a couple’s, escapes taxation. The remainder can be taxed at rates up to 46 percent.

According to the most recent statistics available from the Internal Revenue Service, 1.17 percent of people who died in 2002 left a taxable estate.

[snip]

Two Republicans, Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, broke with their party.

”Repealing the estate tax during this time of fiscal crisis would be incredibly irresponsible and intellectually dishonest,” Voinovich said.