Would Bob Casey (D-Senate candidate) have voted with Allen?

Several bloggers have denounced Allen for supporting a minimum wage increase tied to a permanent change in the Estate Tax. They claimed that the Estate Tax change was wrong.

In the Meet The Press debate this weekend, Casey was asked what he would "cut" from the budget to balance it. Being a democrat, the first cuts he mentioned were not cuts at all, but were all tax increases.

But here was his statement about the estate tax changes:

The second thing, on the estate tax, if we set the general estate tax exemption level at $3.5 million for an individual, 7 million for a couple, maybe even carve out a $5 million exemption for family farms and businesses...

The republican proposal which was offered with the full increase in the minimum wage the democrats pretend is their most important thing was an exemption level of $5 million for individuals, and $10 million for couples.

In other words, a couple of million difference, hardly a chasm. The fact is the republicans offered a tax increase on the estate tax along with the minimum wage increase, and the democrats hurt their own constituents by voting AGAINST the bill because they needed the issue. That's because, as Nancy Pelosi said in a quote in this sunday's post: "Our fight is with the republicans".

They aren't fighting for anything, they are fighting against the people in power, because they want the power.

Casey says he will support a plan like the republicans to permanently cut the estate tax for all but the richest americans. We shouldn't tax anybody simply because they managed to save their money instead of spending it all, but I support the compromise if that's what it takes to get the bill past the do-nothing block-everything democrats in the senate.

Casey said several other times that he would oppose the democrats in the senate. My bet is that they day he shows up, he will turn just like Salazar did in Colorado -- Salazar promised to support a judicial nominee BY NAME, and then opposed that nominee once elected.


UPDATE: I forgot my favorite part of the Casey "cut the deficit" program. It had only two parts -- raise taxes on those making more than $200,000 a year, and cut the estate tax.

That's right, CUT the estate tax. See, in 2011, the estate tax goes back to what it was before the 2001 tax cuts. Casey proposed to cut it for most estates. His proposal would RAISE the deficit over the next 10 years.

So not only was the only thing he proposed to balance the budget TAX INCREASES, he actually proposed a TAX CUT THINKING it was a tax increase.