But with the federal deficit soaring and Democrats in control of Congress, even the most ardent advocates of repeal have resigned themselves to trying to limit the estate tax this year rather than eliminate it.
Eventually, they prevailed and the fight left justices reluctant to overturn Congressional action, especially if the legislators could themselves repeal the measure, said Eric M. Freedman, a Constitutional scholar at Hofstra University Law School.
The Republicans need to ask themselves if repeal is really what they want (as the Times reports, some, not particularly wanting to campaign for excluding people with preëxisting conditions, aren't sure).
American Commitment and 60 Plus were among a handful of groups calling themselves the "Repeal Coalition" that sent a letter in August urging Republican leaders in the House and the Senate to insist "at a minimum" in a one-year delay of carrying out the health care law as part of any budget deal.
And yet, as the blog Talking Points Memo reported, the proposal recently became an issue in pivotal House campaigns in Idaho and Ohio, where two of the Republican Party's most highly recruited candidates got caught up in the moment and declared themselves for repeal, only to try to back off from it later.
They went from trailer home to trailer home, signing up volunteers to build immigrant networks that will help people protect one another while fighting for repeal of the law and integrating themselves into the life of their state.
Most of the Republican presidential contenders are falling all over themselves to promise that repeal will be a cornerstone of their governing agendas.
The objective of all those empty repeal votes was to embarrass Obama, not themselves.
Only in Oregon, in 1964, did voters choose to repeal the death penalty; they later reversed themselves to reinstate it.
"Will Eric Cantor urge every Republican who is going to be for repeal to not take government health care themselves and to drop their existing health care?" he asked.
