senator jon kyl and pat toomey and senator hartman from the senate. all six have signed a pledge against any tax hikes. that s already red flags for democrats that they have a balanced approach. senator harry reid picked max baucus, john kerry of massachusetts and patty murray of washington with senator murray at the co-chair. murray already drawing fire from republicans as her role in a lead democratic congressional fund-raiser, and if the political grumbling is already proving ominous, take a look at markets today enter nosedive territory just as these announcements rolled out. economic anxiety gripping both wall street and main street. with a new poll out today showing 73% of americans think the country is on the wrong track. and nearly half saying the worst is yet to come for our economy. the whole scenario just about sending msnbc s dylan ratigan over the edge. take a look. democrats aren t doing it. republicans are not doing it, and entire integrated system, financial
senator jon kyl and pat toomey and senator hartman from the senate. all six have signed a pledge against any tax hikes. that s already red flags for democrats that they have a balanced approach. senator harry reid picked max baucus, john kerry of massachusetts and patty murray of washington with senator murray at the co-chair. murray already drawing fire from republicans as her role in a lead democratic congressional fund-raiser, and if the political grumbling is already proving ominous, take a look at markets today enter nosedive territory just as these announcements rolled out. economic anxiety gripping both wall street and main street. with a new poll out today showing 73% of americans think the country is on the wrong track. and nearly half saying the worst is yet to come for our economy. the whole scenario just about sending msnbc s dylan ratigan over the edge. take a look. democrats aren t doing it. republicans are not doing it, and entire integrated system, financial
no estate tax. it was 55 percent last year, right? go ahead, curtis. go ahead, ryan. for 2010, there is no death tax. the 2001, 2003 tax cuts saved us the death tax and eliminated it starting in 2010. the lat year we had a death tax was 2009, it was 45 percent with a $3.5 million exemption. jon: ryan, a lot of our viewers are weighing on this, here s a comment from bee, who says i m sorry, brian pittman says why do we tax the dead? in essence, you paid taxes all your life, you amass some amount of money, a piece of land, a business, whatever, why is the government allowed to tax it after you die? well, i think, first of all, anybody who s wrestling with the fact that they have to account for the estate tax has what we generally call a good problem but nationally we have problems
kim jung-il s son to take power. we were speaking with k.t. mcfarland, one of our national security advisers and she said this time of year is particularly important, jon, because it s around the holidays and north korea has a tendency to kind of poke and prod right around this time of year. a developing story, one we re going to be watching very closely as the hour goes by. jon. jon: well, democrats say they have enough votes to move the tax cut deal forward. the first vote in the senate, expected just a few hours from now. that could set up a bigger battle in the house over the estate tax provision. some economists warn cuts in your payroll tax now could end up jeopardizing your social security benefits in the future. let s talk about it with ryan mcconaughey at third way, curtis dubay is tax policy analyst with the heritage foundation. welcome to both of you. a lot of argument over this estate tax. for those people who die this year in 2010, there is