The estate tax has long been the focus of the wealthy far-right. Dig into the Koch and Bradley families and the "think tanks" and other crap they fund, including punks like Grover Norquist who would like to shrink government to a size that he could drown it in a bathtub. The estate tax is progressive and good public policy. So what the heck are these Dems doing supporting it? Can someone clarify? Here's some excerpts from today's NY Times editorial on the matter...
...the original article here.
Some quotes in summary...
Last week, as the unemployment rate hit a 25-year high and nearly one in 10 Americans was receiving food stamps, 10 Democrats in the Senate joined all 41 Republican senators to cut estate taxes for the wealthiest families. The provision would funnel an additional $91 billion over 10 years to the heirs of megafortunes, money that would otherwise have been paid in federal taxes or donated to charity.
Senator Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat of Arkansas, co-sponsored the measure with Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican of Arizona. She said it was critical to creating jobs through small businesses. “With all the money we’ve spent to help the economy, very little of it has filtered down to Main Street and family-owned businesses,” she said.
In addition to Ms. Lincoln, other Democratic senators voting for the estate tax cut were Max Baucus and Jon Tester of Montana, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray of Washington, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Bill Nelson of Florida and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
Already the estate tax only focuses on the wealthiest of the wealthy; only 0.2% of all estates pay it. The editorial points out that estates with actual assets of over $7 million (couples) rarely if ever constitute the small businesses that Blanch Lincoln claims to be aiming for.
If anything, we should be looking to expand the estate tax. Wealthy folks like Bill Gates Sr. have gone on record agreeing that it is a fair and just way to help society. The estate tax helps limit the establishment of oligarchy in the United States.
If the folks listed in the Times editorial are in your district, give their office a call and share your thoughts on whether or not America should be an oligarchy.