MoveOn.org is sometimes a bit trigger-happy and being a skeptic, I don’t react to their frequent calls for petitions and actions without reading up a bit, but this time I think they’re right on target as well as quick on the draw.
I’ve heard a lot of really devious and inaccurate prattle on AM radio of late. It’s designed to get the Lumpenproletariat up in arms about the Liberals trying once again to take their money and give it to other people – this time people other than their children, because it’s about the “Death Tax.” As usual, the Party line is a misrepresentation.
That estate taxes have been around for a very long time is lost on the AM listening public, but then nearly everything is lost on them. Essentially none of them are going to leave estates large enough to qualify for any tax at all. People who are that wealthy usually have availed themselves of Estate Planning; using trusts and insurance to minimize the effect and know in advance just what the price will be. It’s only those who needn’t worry that once again are being used by the Repulsive Right as dogs are in a fox hunt. As with all of Baron Bush’s handouts to his “base” it will affect only the top 2% of all estates. Don’t kid yourself, you’re only one of them if you and your wife leave more than $3 million to your kids and the majority of Inheritance taxes are paid by estates larger than $15 million, or in other words the Bush family, the Cheney Family and their Oil Buddies.
More than just saving big bucks for Jenna and Barbara to spend while military widows and orphans eat cake, they want to restore economic feudalism and suppress Democracy. As Newsweek said, this repeal would "create a new class of landed aristocrats who could inherit billions tax-free, invest the money, watch it compound tax-free and hand it down tax-free to their heirs."The Senate is going to vote on repealing Federal Estate Taxes next month and it will be a close vote. If you want your whisper to be heard above the roar of the Aristocrats, MoveOn has a petition and perhaps your Senator would like to hear from you directly.
4 comments:
Sadly, my two senators from this Red state have probably already fallen in line and cannot be swayed. "Death Tax" was another brilliant wordsmithing job that has changed the dynamic. You have to hand it to the Republicans, they are masters of the manipulative word, and they also all read the regularly disseminated talking points. So, we get the same message from many different sources. It tends to work.
Yes another victory for fraud and manipulation. It's a tax on the transfer of property most if not all of which was never taxed during the newly dead's lifetime. I say again, let the Wal-Mart greeters press for this. Have all the tax breaks go to the super-wealthy and then when it's too late and they wonder why there is no money to spend on middle and lower-class programs I'll stand there and say I told you so. It's like trying help people see who can't wait to be blind. Screw 'em.
Why don't we just charge everyone that dies about $695 plus 10% of all the estate assets greater than $10,000? Then of course we could have an alternative minimum estate tax too for those who paid little taxes during their lifetime. Sort of a "we got you now, you rich scumbag skimmer". If we are going to have an estate tax then it needs to be inclusive not just political ploy without real tax purpose. And why wait until people die to make them ante up? Say we start the estate tax at age 65 and put the money into social security? I'm on a roll. Finally a sensible solution to the social security nightmare.
The Federal Estate Tzx has a purpose or two. For one thing it brings in over a billion a year that we can use to give to Exxon and it is one of the things that prevent a return to feudalism.
Personally I like the idea of a handfull of people with all the money as long as I'm one of them.
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