Drama in the Senate: Rich Plan, Poor Plan

The Senate is on a collision course this week between backers of a higher minimum wage and supporters of a sharply reduced estate tax. Leaders in both parties were busily taking temperatures and counting votes yesterday, saying the outcome is too close to call.

Most Democrats support the minimum-wage hike and oppose the estate tax cut. Most Republicans take the opposite stand. But their choices will not be easy because the House -- with Senate GOP leaders' blessings -- approved both proposals in one bill Saturday and then left town for the summer. The legislation will preoccupy the Senate during a hectic week that also will include action on offshore drilling, military spending and a rewrite of pension law.

The wage-tax showdown, likely to occur Friday, will boil down to this: Do enough Democrats sufficiently detest the estate tax cut -- which would benefit the wealthiest Americans -- to reject a chance to increase the federal minimum wage, which would benefit the working poor?

Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is gambling that the answer is no, and his reputation as a legislative strategist is partly on the line.

Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) virulently opposes the coupling of the minimum-wage hike and the estate tax cut, which he called "a cynical, cheap political trick" in a speech yesterday. "This attempt at political blackmail is not going to work," he said.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) attacked the legislation in a Senate speech yesterday, citing a new study by the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The study concluded that the estate tax reduction would cut government income by $753 billion in the first 10 years, forcing lower spending for Medicaid, food stamps and unemployment insurance, which help low-wage workers.

But Frist says it is time "to reform the unfair death tax," and the odd-couple bill is his chance.

Under the bill, the federal minimum wage, which has stood at $5.15 an hour for nine years, would rise in three phases to $7.25. The bill would exempt from taxation all estates worth up to $5 million -- or $10 million for a married couple -- and apply a 15 percent tax rate to inheritances above that threshold to as much as $25 million. Estate values exceeding $25 million would be taxed at 30 percent.

Frist and other Republicans have failed in efforts to eliminate the estate tax altogether, and it is unclear whether the proposed sharp reduction can survive a Senate filibuster. Backers will need 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to choke off debate. Even if all 55 Republicans vote to kill a filibuster -- which is not certain -- Frist and his allies must peel off half a dozen Democrats.

To that end, the bill is sprinkled with incentives drafted with particular lawmakers in mind. A rural bonds provision is aimed at Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.). A tax break for timber interests is a possible lure for Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). A provision benefiting coal mines is targeted at Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.).

Reid and his allies may have an ace in the hole, however. They may be able to push the "cloture" vote -- needed to kill a filibuster of the wage-tax bill -- until Friday, the toughest day to round up 60 votes. On any Friday -- but especially one that launches a month-long recess -- a few senators from both parties are typically absent. The Friday-flight tradition will make Frist's challenge all the harder.

Bush Faces Bipartisan Complaint

---

A conservative Republican and a liberal Democrat have accused the Bush administration of misleading Congress by withholding key information about India when the House voted last week to support U.S. plans to sell nuclear technology to New Delhi. Administration officials knew at the time -- but did not tell lawmakers -- that it planned to sanction two Indian firms for selling missile parts to Iran.

News accounts of the incident did not sit well with Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and William D. Delahunt (D-Mass.), top members of the House International Relations subcommittee on oversight and investigations.

In a July 28 letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the two expressed "grave concerns about testimony provided by Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation Frank Record at a July 20, 2005, hearing on U.S. Nonproliferation Strategies -- testimony that is, on its face, highly misleading if not intentionally deceptive."

The lawmakers said the subcommittee had asked Record about the tardiness of a report on weapons transfers to Iran. "In response to a specific question about whether the long-overdue report would name any Indian entities that made such transfers to Iran, Mr. Record replied 'I don't recall,' " the letter to Rice said. "Mr. Record also asserted that 'There is no ulterior motive in waiting or trying to hold that information back.' "