WaPo: Private Equity Tax Bill Is Dead; Obama and Edwards Blast Decision

Front page story in today's Washington Post:  Buyout Firms to Avoid a Tax Hike; Reid Passes Word Senate Won't Act, by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum:

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has told private-equity firms in recent weeks that a tax-hike proposal they have spent millions of dollars to defeat will not get through the Senate this year, according to executives and lobbyists. Reid's assurance all but ends the year's highest-profile battle over a major tax increase. Democratic lawmakers, including some presidential candidates, had been pushing to more than double the tax rate on the massive earnings of private-equity managers, who the Democrats say have been chronically undertaxed.

Reuters:  Obama, Edwards Hit Lobbyists on Private Equity Tax, by Kevin Drawbaugh:

Democratic presidential contenders Barack Obama and John Edwards blasted the power of business lobbyists in Washington on Tuesday as support in Congress waned for a tax increase this year on the profits of wealthy private equity and hedge fund managers. Amid heavy lobbying against a tax hike that would hit some of Wall Street's savviest players, lawmakers and aides for weeks have downplayed chances of Congress moving soon to pass bills to raise taxes on so-called "carried interest" profits.

See also coverage in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.