'Death Tax' repeal: 18 families who would save $71.6 billion are

.are behind the effort. Will Democrats expose them in hearings on middle-class tax cuts?

This webpage is six months old, but IMO has renewed relevance due to incoming Majority Leader Reid's high priority for middle-class tax relief. IMO, middle-class families are paying far more than their fair share, while the top 1 or 2 percent are paying far less. There's a link on this page to a great PDF report with many leads for Congressional investigation of more than a decade of organized disinfo on the estate tax by a few, at the cost of millions to reap potential tens of billions at the expense of the rest of us.

From http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2182 :

"Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy Expose Stealth Campaign of Super-Wealthy to Repeal Federal Estate Tax: Report Identifies 18 Families Behind Multimillion-Dollar Deceptive Lobbying Campaign-- April 25, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. The multimillion-dollar lobbying effort to repeal the federal estate tax has been aggressively led by 18 super-wealthy families, according to a report released today by Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy at a press conference in Washington, D.C. The report details for the first time the vast money, influence and deceptive marketing techniques behind the rhetoric in the campaign to repeal the tax. It reveals how 18 families worth a total of $185.5 billion have financed and coordinated a 10-year effort to repeal the estate tax, a move that would collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion.

The report profiles the families and their businesses, which include the families behind Wal-Mart, Gallo wine, Campbell's soup, and Mars Inc., maker of M&Ms. Collectively, the list includes the first- and third-largest privately held companies in the United States, the richest family in Alabama and the world's largest retailer. These families have sought to keep their activities anonymous by using associations to represent them and by forming a massive coalition of business and trade associations dedicated to pushing for estate tax repeal. The report details the groups they have hidden behind-- the trade associations they have used, the lobbyists they have hired, and the anti-estate tax political action committees, 527s and organizations to which they have donated heavily.

In a massive public relations campaign, the families have also misled the country by giving the mistaken impression that the estate tax affects most Americans. In particular, they have used small businesses and family farms as poster children for repeal, saying that the estate tax destroys both of these groups. But just more than one-fourth of one percent of all estates will owe any estate taxes in 2006. And the American Farm Bureau, a member of the anti-estate tax coalition, was unable when asked by The New York Times to cite a single example of a family being forced to sell its farm because of estate tax liability. ... Said Lee Farris, senior organizer for estate tax policy at UFE, 'It's time for the majority of Americans who support the estate tax to speak out, and not let a handful of wealthy families sway Congress to twist the tax laws for their own benefit. Polls now show that most Americans support this tax and the revenue it yields to pay for vital services, especially given our nation's huge deficit.' While they extol the hard work of individual farmers and small businesses, most of the 18 families have been wealthy for generations; only five still include the people who first earned the family fortune. Members of the families are far less likely than most Americans to have paid taxes on their wealth; to a large extent, that wealth lies in assets that have appreciated but, unlike paychecks, have never been taxed.

These super-rich families have spent millions in personal wealth and used their companies' resources and lobbying power in repeated attempts to influence members of Congress to repeal the tax. They have financed groups who have launched multimillion-dollar attack ads against Republican and Democratic senators alike, including former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Olympia Snow (R-Maine), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Lincoln Chaffee (R-R.I.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). The stakes of the campaign are great, not only for the super-wealthy families, but for the public. If the families' repeal bid succeeds, it will cost the U.S. Treasury a trillion dollars in the first decade  roughly what it would cost to provide health insurance for every uninsured person in the United States."

and child in the US due to tax cuts for the wealthy and the unnecessary war that I'd like to repeal....

Here's the link to the families and amounts;

http://www.citizen.org/documents/EstateTaxFinal.pdf

page 11.

ETA: Also note how many entries are listed as unknown and therefore, not counted.

the public trough. It is high-time more people learn about this. These bastards want to create dynasties. And none should be allowed.
:kick:TWO!

My god think of that! That is the WHOLE FAMILY! There are probably cousins only worth 5 or 10 Million when they are born!

THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!

$10 billion is 1,000 times $10 million, enough to give $10 million apiece to each of 1,000 family members. At the expense of tax revenues that could have provided $100,000 college educations to each of 100,000 poor and middle-class Americans.

enough money--and poor people have too much."