Unearned wealth.

How pathetic that Republicans have come to the point where everything their founders fought for they repudiate.

Earlier this month, I posted about how the arguments by the left simply don’t hold water when applied to the debate about estate taxes. The repeal effort on the table at the time failed in the Senate, but the issue…

Unfortunately the Republicans who are pandering to the rich are not hilarious. They’re just dangerous.

We’ve gotta stop them and somehow convince Americans to get back with the program — the U. S. Constitution, or else we’ll lose it all. Then we’ll just be China’s bitch. You don’t want that, do you?

…I’m too sexy for my keyboard… :-) What a hoot.

i was just about to eat lunch… omg…

Bill Gates doesn’t mind the estate tax because he doesn’t intend for his estate to pay it. He has said (and I believe) that he will leave what you or I would consider a substantial inheritance to his children, but that the bulk of his wealth will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

I don’t have a problem with that method of avoiding estate taxes, as long as the foundations are monitored to make certain that they are fulfilling their public service charter. If Richard Mellon Scaife or the Coors brothers want to leave the bulk of their estates to educational, health or other (approved) charitable foundations, that’s fine with me too.

What is important is that the megafortunes are not available to their heirs to do with as they please. I don’t even care if the heirs sit on the foundation’s board and draw salaries for their ‘work’ there. They won’t be able to set up self-sustaining hereditary aristocracies.

Presenting these people with a choice is fine. When you’re gone, all of your fortune will be out of your control. You can set up a foundation and earmark it for public goods dear to you, or you can give most of it to the Treasury for the government to earmark for what it thinks is the public good. You choose.

BC

It’s relatively easy to set a “small” estate of 5 to 20 million dollars up so that the estate tax takes little bite. As you get richer it becomes harder. Bill Gates doesn’t mind the estate tax, but there is not enough insurance capacity in the world to cover it for him if he did.

Ultimately, Republicans want to do away with all estate, dividend, and capital gains taxes, as well as any tax on corporate income (60% of corporations pay no taxes as it is). Almost the entire tax burden is being shifted to wage income only, and that’s the intention.

So eventually, a Paris Hilton can inherit her hundred million, have it earn millions in dividends during her lifetime, and leave what would likely be an even larger estate to her children without paying a penny in taxes on any of that income, ever. And then it’s the kiddies’ turn.

Remember what Leona Helmsley said, taxes are for the little people. It’s class warfare, folks, and guess who’s losing the war.

(Want to raise your blood pressure? Read Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston on how the ultra-wealthy manipulate the tax system—designed by their bought and paid for legislators—to avoid paying taxes.)

Now I actually feel some concern for Paris. She should get all points of contact with Pauly disinfected as soon as possible.