It’s been coming down the pike for a while now, but next week, a repeal of the [tag]estate tax[/tag] will reach the [tag]Senate[/tag] floor. Harold Meyerson makes a compelling case today that the Republican proposal is nothing short of “lunacy,” and the measure is indicative of [tag]Congress[/tag] loosing “any scintilla of sense” it has left.
The Senate…is scheduled next week to take up legislation by Arizona Republican Jon Kyl that would permanently repeal the estate tax on the [tag]wealthiest[/tag] Americans. If enacted, Kyl’s bill would plunge the government another trillion dollars into the red during the first decade (2011-2021) that it would be in effect.
There are a few angles to this debate that are worth keeping in mind over the next week. First, no one should lose sight of the fact that congressional Republicans are fighting hard for still more tax cuts for [tag]millionaires[/tag] and [tag]billionaires[/tag], while blowing off extensions of lower rates for middle-class families. Second, while Republicans are aiming to eliminate the estate tax altogether, they’re also raising taxes on Americans living abroad and tripling the tax rates for teenagers with college savings funds.
What’s more, just yesterday we learned that the real beneficiaries aren’t just faceless fat-cats — Bush, Cheney, and the president’s cabinet stand to personally benefit by as much as $344 million dollars if the estate tax repeal goes through.
Of course, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the hyper-wealthy interests who have fueled this campaign all along.
As the Senate nears a planned vote on abolishing the estate tax, a leading government-watchdog group yesterday released a report cataloging the efforts of 18 business-dynasty families to bankroll lobbying campaigns against the tax.
Lobbying against the estate tax has grown into a cottage industry since the late 1990s, fueled by conservative groups opposed on ideological grounds and business magnates seeking the freedom to pass on assets to future generations. Foes successfully tagged the levy “the death tax” and played up its effect on family farms and small-business owners, winning passage of a phased estate-tax repeal as part of 2001’s tax-cut package.
Yesterday’s report, compiled by Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy, lists 18 families that have made traceable contributions to the network of lobbying coalitions and advocacy groups at the forefront of the anti-estate-tax movement.
Among those singled out are the Waltons, who own a large stake of Wal-Mart; the Wegmans, whose self-titled supermarket chain has several branches in the Washington area; the Nordstrom department-store heirs; and Frank Blethen, the Seattle Times owner who donated ad space to the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition’s (FBETC) campaign against the tax.
“The families hid behind trade associations and lobbyists to make their pitch … essentially buying what they wanted in Washington since 1998,” Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook said at the report’s unveiling.
Overall, Public Citizen found that these 18 families, worth a total of $185.5 billion, have effectively led a decade-long effort to repeal the estate tax, which would “collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion.” They also tried to keep all their efforts under wraps, so you wouldn’t know about it.
And now Senate Republicans are intent on doing their bidding next week. Stay tuned.