From economist Robert Reich's Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/984428804903049
Every time I think House Republicans can’t possibly come up with a worse proposal, they exceed my expectations. Tomorrow...
Posted by Robert Reich on Tuesday, April 14, 2015
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Every time I think House Republicans can’t possibly come up with a worse proposal, they exceed my expectations. Tomorrow they’re voting to repeal the federal estate tax. At a time when the richest 1 percent has 42 percent of the nation’s entire wealth, while the bottom 90 percent has just 23 percent – a greater concentration of wealth at the top than at any time since the Gilded Age of the1890s -- House Republicans are gearing up to abolish the tax on inheritance that reaches only the richest .2 percent, and applies only to dollars in excess of $10.9 million for married couples or $5.4 million for individuals. (Under current law, if a couple leaves $10.9 million to their heirs, they pay no estate tax. If they leave $10,900,001 to their heirs, they pay the estate tax on $1.The current estate tax rate is 40%, so that would be 40 cents.)
Yet according to House Republicans, current law demands too much from the wealthy. In reality, it's just the opposite. The estate tax should be raised.
Their proposal would accelerate the numbers of working poor and non-working rich in America. It would give each of the wealthiest .2 percent of American households an average tax cut of $3 million, and reduce tax revenues by $269 billion over ten years. The result would be either larger federal deficits or higher taxes on the rest of us to fill the gap. Meanwhile, Republicans are proposing even bigger cuts in food stamps, education, Medicare and Medicaid, job training, roads and bridges and other infrastructure.
Obama will veto, but Republicans will keep hammering. Abolishing the estate tax is one of the priorities of the Koch brothers and other billionaires who are financing the GOP.
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