After Katrina I sent several e-mails to Senators Voinovich and Dewine. The first expressed my outrage that the RNC would send out a letter to get support to kill the estate tax while people were fighting to survive in NO. The second letter was much calmer. I stated I was against the repeal of the estate tax because of the amount of money that would be needed as a result of Katrina (humanitarian aid and rebuilding), and, Katrina is a lesson of "penny wise, pound foolish" - instead of trying to lessen the impact of a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane, funds were given away as tax cuts. I went on a big about the deficit problem.
Sen Dewine's response to me is after the jump . . .
September 7, 2005
Dear Daniel:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act
(H.R. 8). I consistently have supported estate tax relief and believe
that new reforms will strengthen economic growth and family businesses and
remain practical under our current budgetary situation.
As you know, H.R. 8 would repeal the estate tax permanently. Currently,
due to passage of the 2001 tax cut law, the estate tax is to be gradually
reduced and then completely eliminated for one year -- 2010. When the law
expires the next year in 2011, the estate tax is supposed to regress to
previous law with an exclusion level of $1 million. The House of
Representatives passed H.R. 8 on April 13, 2005, by a vote of 272-162.
The full Senate is scheduled to consider H.R. 8 in September. As debate
on this legislation continues, I certainly will keep your views in mind.
Again, thank you for contacting me. If you have any additional questions
or concerns, please feel free to contact me anytime.
Very respectfully yours,
MIKE DeWINE
United States Senator
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Did he even read my e-mail????