04/13/05 Death tax vote; AgJobs views differ?

The U.S. House of Representatives could hold a vote as early as today on legislation that would permanently repeal the estate tax. However, the Senate may not be as willing to consider a full repeal. Budget rules in the Senate would require a sixty vote majority to pass repeal of the so called "death tax", votes that currently aren't available. So on the Senate side, there is talk of compromise. Ideas include exempting family-owned businesses and farms, or perhaps lowering the tax rate and raising the overall exemption amount. Might there be some difference of opinion on the AgJobs bill among Idaho's U.S. Senators? Larry Craig is the main sponsor of the bill designed to improve the current guest worker program by identifying and legitimizing millions of illegal laborers in the U.S. ag industry. But his seatmate, Mike Crapo, admits that he does not fully support Craig's measure. CRAPO: His bill does do a lot of very good things. The one part of his bill that has caused the greatest amount of turmoil is that it does allow a pathway for some of those people who have entered the country illegally to get into the guest worker program, and then by so doing, to get themselves onto a pathway to U.S. citizenship. Crapo adds that don't be surprised if the AgJobs bills finds itself in this week's Senate debate over supplemental 2005 budget spending for Iraq and Afghanistan, as an amendment to the appropriation. It all depends if Senate leadership can give Craig a guaranteed time later this session on a full floor debate. Now with today's "Food Forethought", here's Susan Allen. ALLEN: My son Tommy, majoring in marketing, constantly bombards us with ideas for start up businesses. Time has a tendency to harden our tenacity and while most of his concepts seem far fetched, I might be revisiting them after learning what some MBA students are peddling. I have to applaud the gumption of students at the Wharton School of Business for coming up with the TerraPass, a system where motorists pay a yearly fee to clear their conscience over the fact they drive gas guzzling vehicles. The students that developed the web based program reportedly now have drivers of compact cars sending them $39.95, while SUV owners fork over a whopping $79.95 for a year of "certification" plus a bumper sticker reading " Clean up after your Car." A portion of the TerraPass supposedly is earmarked to fund green fuel projects, but the amount has yet to be disclosed. Now if these students can get people to believe that paying money somehow clears their conscience about driving, I'll tell you what, I will be listening more closely to Tommy's next marketing pitch. I'm Susan Allen and this is Food Forethought.