Reward for the Hereditary Elite
MountainLaurel
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Mon Jun-05-06 08:11 AM
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| Reward for the Hereditary Elite |
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It doesn't matter if you are liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. There is no possible excuse for doing what Congress is poised to do this week: Abolish the estate tax.
The federal government faces a future of expanding deficits. Thanks to the baby bust and medical inflation, spending is projected to rise by nearly 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2030, a growth equivalent to the doubling of today's Medicare program. What is the dumbest possible response to this? Take a source of revenue and abolish it outright.
The nation faces rising inequality. Since 1980 the gap between the earnings of the top fifth and the bottom fifth has jumped by almost 50 percent. The United States is by some measures the most unequal society in the rich world and the most unequal that it's been since the 1920s. What is the dumbest possible response to this? Identify the most progressive federal tax and repeal it.
The nation faces the prospect that inequality will damage meritocracy. When the distance between top and bottom widens, it becomes harder to traverse the gap; people of low birth are stuck at the bottom, and human talent is wasted. What is the dumbest possible response to this? Take the tax that limits what the super-rich pass on to their children and get rid of it. Send a message to hereditary elites: Go ahead, entrench yourselves!http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/04/AR2006060400782.html
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| Daphne08
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Mon Jun-05-06 08:17 AM
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| 1. C-Span addressed this earlier this morning, and some of the |
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callers were unbelievably insufferable.
The words I heard most often from them were "...my inheritance..." as if they had earned the money.
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| Captain Hilts
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Mon Jun-05-06 08:26 AM
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| 2. People are IGNORANT of how our tax system works. |
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They don't understand that it is regressive because of the way the payroll tax is executed - you pay higher taxes on earned income than interest income....
And they still believe the fear mongering about family farms, etc. on the estate tax. One survey showed that 50% of the population thinks they'll have to pay it!
Someone please ask George Soros to pay for ads explaining these points to show during American Idol or the soap operas.
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| acmejack
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Mon Jun-05-06 08:51 AM
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| 3. They look at it as winning the lottery. |
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People do indeed get the Government they deserve. Sad, but true. Sad for us, that is...
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