Friday, May 12, 2006

How the Republicans love you!


I would be remiss in my duties if I did not give you these facts about the estate tax.
You see Republicans lie, OOPS! I mean they have not been very honest about the estate tax or as they call it on Fox news "The Death Tax". You see Republican president Abraham Lincoln saw fit to have this tax(they will not tell you this on Fox News) and Republican sex cop Bill O'reilly won't tell you the whole story(talk about spin). Thats why I am here. Now keep in mind I am a capitalist pig, but I feel a need to spread the gospel of Anthony to the teeming masses. You see Republicans will tell you they are against taxes, but they forget to tell you they are against taxes for the rich and not the poor. Oh Anthony stop it, you are a trouble maker and the Republicans care about us. Okay lets do something really strange and actually look at their record. The Republicans have cut capital gains taxes and dividend taxes and the estate tax. Now remember the estate tax is paid by only about 1 percent of the wealthiest of the population just 1%. The other taxes I mentioned are paid by 9.5 per cent of people. Now here is the clincher the Republicans have never cut payroll taxes and thats paid by 75% of Americans. So its okay for you to work your ass off and get screwed in taxes the more you make the more you get taxed sometimes you have to work two jobs. But Paris Hilton who never worked a day in her life should get her inheritance money tax free so she can fund her drinking and sexcrazed lifestyle. You see the Republicans use a strategy you see all the time in sports stadiums you know how sports fans have no lives because if they did they would not paint their faces blue and red and yellow. But they used a collective mentality to get people to sympathize with them,its called the "you can be rich too trick". So just like sports fans who would like to be these athletes they pay money to see to watch these rich guys play ball,but they can never be them so they watch in awe like serfs and yearn to be like Mike. See my point! You see Republicans are against distribution of wealth when it goes downward,but when distribution of wealth goes upwards, Oh they love it, see its just a matter of direction. Whose your Daddy? To drive it home further here are some more facts. Have a nice day.

* It’s a tax only on the wealthiest Americans: the estates of 98 of every 100 people who die face no estate tax whatsoever. Current law contains protections for family farms and businesses. The exemption for individual estates, now $675,000, is set to rise to $1 million by 2006. The exemption for couples, now $1.35 million, is set to rise to $2 million. Spouses can inherit estates of any size without any tax liability.

* The wealthiest multimillionaire families would get a giant tax break. Charles Davenport, a tax expert at Rutgers University, says that repealing the tax would mean an average $7 million tax cut for the top one-tenth of one percent of families (New York Times, July 16, 2000).

* The estate tax is not double taxation. A majority of the value of the largest estates have never been subject to taxation. In fact, when a person dies, the gains on assets such as stocks, bonds, houses and other real estate that have never been sold (unrealized capital gains) are not subject to capital gains taxation. Heirs inherit the assets at their full, appreciated value. Without the estate tax, those gains would remain untaxed forever.

* In 2000, the federal estate tax is expected to raise $27 billion in 2000. That's more than double the total amount of federal income taxes paid by the bottom half of all taxpayers. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, repealing the estate tax would be very costly—$105 billion over the first 10 years, as it phases in slowly, and nearly $50 billion a year once it was fully in effect. The cost of repeal in the second 10 years—from 2011 to 2020—would be at least $620 billion, over half a trillion dollars! What would be cut to make up this lost revenue? Education, Food Stamps, Medicare, Social Security? Or would taxes be raised on low- and middle-income Americans?

* No estate tax is due on funds bequeathed to charities. In 1997, more than 15,500 estates took advantage of this provision, making donations worth more than $14 billion. Experts say charities would lose substantially after a repeal.

* The average effective estate tax rate (after all exemptions and deductions) is not 55 percent (the top marginal rate), but a modest 17 percent of the gross value of the estates. That’s less than the income tax rate paid by many middle Americans.

"Estate tax repeal would accelerate America’s drift towards economic apartheid. Why eliminate a tax that targets only America’s wealthiest families, encourages charitable giving, expands green space through bequests to conservation land trusts, and promotes America's core economic and democratic values?

—Chuck Collins, co-director of United for a Fair Economy and
co-author of Economic Apartheid in America (New Press, 2000).

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