As part of his tax cut package, President Bush cut the Death Tax way back. Otherwise known as an estate tax, the elimination of this tax allowed folks to keep much more of their inheritance during this past decade. Family owned businesses stayed in the family, rather than being liquidated to satisfy the government's thirst for money.
The Death Tax has always been an evil creation of the government. For the Feds to come in and tell you that they own a percentage of your inheritance is just plain wrong. In almost all cases, what they are taxing has already been subject to taxation, in some cases several times over.
The far left wants the Death Tax back - they love the revenue it brings in, and they love the fact it punishes the 'rich' - another form of the redistribution of wealth that they are so fond of.
The Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year, unless Congress reinstates them. If nothing is done, the Death Tax will come back, and revert to its pre-Bush tax cut levels. In other words, folks who inherit substantial estates will lose 55% of the estate to the Federal Government.
Democrats love this - they don't have to do anything and this tax increase will happen. They'll say 'Oh, we didn't do it ...'.
Republicans, and some moderate Democrats are trying to get this addressed in Congress, but they are being stonewalled by Reid and Pelosi. All the Democrat leadership has to do is delay any effort to reinstate the cuts, and they succeed.
Two examples I heard today really brought this into focus.
First, a family owned lumber mill in Alabama, worth $50,000,000. When the elderly owner dies, his sons, will have to pay the Federal Government $27,500,000 in cash in order to keep their business. If they don't sell the business to pay the tax bill, the government will sieze the business and sell it, taking all of the proceeds. Approximately 500 people employed by the business will lose their jobs.
Second, Yankee Owner George Steinbrenner. If he had died on Jan. 1 of 2011, his heirs would have had to sell off the Yankee franchise in order to pay the Feds their cut.
Who in the hell could ever think that either of these situations is fair? Answer - far left Democrats, those running our government, who want this to happen.
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