The AP via the Guardian: House GOP Pushes to Terminate Estate Taxes
House Republicans on Wednesday pushed to make permanent a one-year reprieve on estate taxes, a change that Democrats said would reward the wealthiest families and increase the federal deficit by tens of billions of dollars annually.
And it is not a "reward" to stop stealing from someone. It is the very first step in the road to bringing justice to a criminal situation.
Democrats fought back with an alternative that quickly would increase the size of estates that are exempt from tax, but would leave the tax in place for the wealthiest estates. Democrats tried to make the case that the GOP's repeal was a gift to the rich."They believe the wealthy should be exempt from paying taxes and the poor should fend for themselves,'' said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
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"They believe the wealthy should be exempt from paying taxes and the poor should fend for themselves,'' said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.
That's retarded. The poor are already not paying estate taxes. Not taxing anybody would even the playing field, because now everybody would be free.
That extra money would help the poor too. 2nd generation land-owners might be able to hold on to there property after Mom and Dad pass away, instead of selling it for cheap to Ted Turner, so they can afford to pay there taxes.
What I don't understand is, with Republican's controling both houses and the Presidency, how are they finding it so hard to repeal evil taxes?
Anyway,
Tracy
Posted by: Tracy Saboe on April 13, 2005 11:37 PMBecause you've come to assume that Republican politicians want to repeal taxes. It's a fair thing to think because that's a good deal of what you hear that supposedly separates them from Democrats. However, just like their opposition that has a thousand things it wants to fund through taxation, Republicans have their own special interests that not only must be funded that way, but need to be funded more. The military has been the prime example of this and now that we're engaged in active military conflicts there are ample excuses to pump the DoD budget up.
But the greatest part of the federal budget is consumed by things like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. If you think the resistance to changing Social Security *just to aim it towards potentially making financial sense* is bad, just imagine the fight against reducing the burden of the other programs. Generally speaking, Republicans like those programs because they keep an important part of the voting population happy.
Formal answers to your question could be laid at the feet of the Senate's thin margin in favor of Republicans and the moderates therein.
Posted by: Drizz on April 14, 2005 08:30 AM