Over the past couple years I have had the misfortune of sitting through a number of tedious and infuriating House Finance Committee hearings, where it has become commonplace to watch Rep. “Angry Ed” Orcutt (R-Kalama) argue vigorously — and, um… angrily — for nearly every tax cut, tax break and tax loophole to come down the pike. The man simply doesn’t like taxes.
This year he championed yet another attempt to repeal WA’s estate tax, a bill that died in committee. So on Tuesday he forced the House to vote on a procedural motion to bring the bill directly to the floor without a public hearing. In a press release issued after the motion failed 53-45, Orcutt whined:
“I’m not content to let small businesses die from having to liquidate their assets to pay one of the most punitive death taxes in the nation,”
Uh-huh.
So here’s my challenge to Angry Ed: show me the small businesses that have been forced to liquidate their assets to pay off WA’s estate tax.
I don’t want an anecdote or a metaphor, and I don’t want businesses where the heirs just decided to cash out… that happens all the time, regardless of taxes.
I want documented evidence of small family businesses, where the heirs desperately wanted to keep it in the family, but just couldn’t wing it… all because of WA’s “punitive” estate tax on non-farm assets over $2 million.
How many have there been over the past few years, Ed? Thousands? Hundreds? A couple dozen? Can you name just one?
I mean, if you’re going to grandstand on an issue like this, I just assume you have the facts to back it up. Otherwise, people might start thinking that your procedural maneuver was just some cheap, political stunt like, you know… the GOP’s cynical effort to bring their sex offender bill to a floor vote — likewise without hearings or debate — just to manufacture a controversy they could use against Democrats.
A Republican political action committee is sending automated phone calls to voters in swing districts targeting Democratic incumbents for opposing a vote on a bill to repeal Washington’s estate tax.
Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver, said her constituents began receiving the calls Thursday. “It’s ugly, partisan game-playing that we don’t need,” she said.
Besides, Wallace said, she voted in favor of bringing the bill to the House floor on Tuesday.
Yup, HA regular Kevin Carnes and The Speaker’s Roundtable is at it again. Apparently, Angry Ed’s hopeless procedural motion was just a ruse designed to provide cover for canned attack ads aimed at Democrats in swing districts. And when asked why Rep. Wallace’s constituents were being told she voted against the motion, when in fact she voted for it, Carnes displayed his usual ethical ambivalence.
“If she wants to be pragmatic about this, maybe (Wallace) should encourage her caucus to take a vote on this,”
So… Rep. Wallace is just a metaphor for the rest of her caucus?
So come on Ed, prove to me that you’re not just another tool of your caucus’s political hacks. You claim the WA estate tax — a tax that only applies to about 250 estates a year — forces small businesses to liquidate their assets. Now prove it.
Tell you what Goldy…
Goldy,
While you are demanding things.
Why don’t you demand to know why the governors Executive staff is issues handicapped parking passes to avoid those pesky parking fees?
Momus @1,
Go get your own blog, and see if anybody reads it.
Back on topic, do you have any evidence that small businesses commonly liquidate due to WA’s estate tax?
Well I used to know a fella down the street whose friend’s friend read a website, I think it was uh.., furypolitics.org or something, that reported a family who lost their farm because of the debt tax.
It was a really reliable source! Honest!
Goldy…
It’s a free country and a free website.
So….. Suck my Dick
Momus, yet another example of an angry conservative who hasn’t made the realization yet that the “death tax” is just another one of those pesky conservative lies.
One of the primary functions of the “Estate Tax” is to prevent the ascendancy of an aristocratic society through the power of inherited wealth.
Conservatives; so little knowledge, so fucking gullible.
GBS…
Ya great tie in…
Governors executive staff, handicapped paking….= Death tax.
momus
suck my dick, you nancy boy
Momar
How do you merge these two statements and have it make sense?
“Governors executive staff, handicapped paking….= Death tax.”
Smmoth move, Exlax.
Moron.
Goldy…
It’s a free country and a free website.
So….. Suck my Dick
Comment by momus— 2/13/06 @ 12:47 pm
Free?? As in freedom of the press, freedom of speech??
Yeah, keep going there Butthead, wiretapping = loss of your 4th amendment rights. What are you willing give up next in the name of “security?” Freedom of speech? Peaceably assembel? You’re right to keep and bear arms?
The more you blather, the more you prove how unpatriotic conservatives are.
“It’s a free country and a free website.”
Spoken like a real Republican Freeloader, momus.
The website is Goldy’s. He could kick your pink ass out anytime he wanted to. But he feels it is better to just let idiots like you put your foot in your mouth.
Which yo do every time you post.
I can never quite understand how the ‘free marketeers’ reconcile their support for the estate tax repeal.
Why should people who did nothing to earn it receive such vast sums of money?
Goldy is too much of a pussy to do anything other than talk….
Momus @12,
Talking and writing is how I make my impact. What else would you suggest I do to make me less of a pussy? Take up arms and start shooting those who disagree with me? Hmm. By the way… where do you live?
Momus @4,
It is not a free website, it costs me $200.00/year just to serve it, not to mention untold hours of my time. I’d appreciate a financial contribution.
But back on topic. Do you have any proof of small family businesses forced to liquidate due to WA’s estate tax?
The reason I ask is that, that is the argument being used in favor of its repeal, so I thought that if we were to make a policy decision based on this argument we should at least explore whether it is based on fact. Basing policy decisions on facts is a good thing, right?
Hey Goldy, this is just what I found after some googling…
it’s from some speech in 2004 by “Dick Patten”
One of the things that the introduction didn’t mention to you is that I killed my first death tax in 1981. When I was 27 years old, I went down to Olympia, Washington, and filed an initiative to the voters for the State of Washington to repeal Washington’s inheritance and gift taxes. We hired a staff, we formed a committee, we gathered 200,000 signatures, we qualified it for the ballot, we ran the campaign for the duration of the year, and when all was said and done, even the liberal voters in the state of Washington voted 72 percent to kill the death tax. During that time we learned a few things. At that time, the State of Washington Department of Revenue had its own stand-alone bureaucracy for administering the Washington State inheritance tax. It was run by a man named Clarence Borley. As we did our research, we found that Clarence Borley had done his thesis for his Masters in Public Administration on “A Social Philosophy of Inheritance and Gift Taxes.” We are not just dealing with people who are committed to the principles of Karl Marx. We re dealing with bureaucrats who have completely lost sight of any concept of property rights. He says inheritance is not a natural right. It is merely a privilege granted by a benevolent government. These folks are the enemy.
…
Once again, the death tax is not that big of a slice of the federal budget. It is $24 billion. It is 1.2 percent. By the way, it is also a very expensive tax to enforce. About sixty percent of those funds are spent on enforcement. It is a very, very expensive tax. For example, at any given time there are approximately 11,000 lawsuits of families and estates suing the IRS, predictably, over the issue of valuation.
…
I want to mention to you that the Forest Landowners Association has been a very, very valuable ally in this fight
Testing:
the very term Death Tax is so emotionally charged and misleading, it pisses me off every time I see it. Can’t we have people get to issues without tryin’ to cloud it with crazy emotionalism?
Not if the national GOP is involved.
Goldy..
Let’s look at your impact….
Sure you’ve got your little gaggle of people on this board who either hero worship (GBS, Donna, Windi, RR etc…) you or you’ve got a gaggle who hate the thought that you even breath,( Myself, JCH, ect…)
Other than that, you sum total acheivement in life, to this date, has been to be able to grab 30 seconds of fame off of Tim Eyman and to link Mike brown with his former job.
That’s everything….
You are a pathetic, partisan hack who is recognized as such.
So should you take up arms. Absolutely not, but before you start criticizing a country, having served in the military would be a good start or at least volunteering for something other than grabbing your next 15 minutes.
Don’t criticize, contribute for once in your shallow life.
So go seek a commission or enlist, whatever…. Do that and I’ll at least respect your point of view. Until that time I will continue to consider you the cowardly fuck that I currently do.
Lets recount momus’s sum total acheivements in life:
1.
momus’s 2 goals here:
1) Make the post ‘all about momus’
2) Get goldy to ban him. (I can see the canned ad already… Liberals are such thin-skinned wimps! Blogger Goldy banned someone for dissenting!) It looks like he’s onto ya tho’.
Windie…
Interesting take on life…. Government = Bad, Military = bad, Conservatives = Bad.
Don’t you make your living off the military?
Hell if JCH hasn’t been banned, momus doesn’t stand a chance. momus even fails at being annoying.
So go seek a commission or enlist, whatever…. Do that and I’ll at least respect your point of view. Until that time I will continue to consider you the cowardly fuck that I currently do.
Comment by momus— 2/13/06 @ 1:40 pm
You mean like Dick Cheney’s military experience? Or the way George W. Bush used his Daddy’s political influence to leapfrog over ordinary people waiting their fair turn to get into the TANG. Thus, using the ploy of that era to avoid military service in Viet Nam?
You mean that kind of respect?
Moron.
Bush + chenney = 5 years experience of being invloved in a war…
Argue that
In a strange sort of way I welcome the quixotic attacks on the Inheritance Tax. These sort of non-reality based missions are easily countered with facts and frank discussion. . .and take of a great deal of time and effort on the non-reality based right’s part. A close corollary to running Ellen Craswell.
The answer to ‘stealth’ candidates like ‘Dino Lossi’ and Mike ‘McGive-away” is openly publish their agendas.
We are seeing an attempt to re-establish an aristocracy in America today. . .the Bush crime family would be exhibit ‘A’. Relativity and association trump competency and accomplishment in theirworld. It is precisely this sort of ascendancy the Inheritance Tax aims to oppose. Never lose sight of this populist root of this tax.
We do not need a’governing class’ built off of idiot brother-in-laws or live-in lovers. Merit, and merit alone gainedrespect of our founding fathers.
@ 24
Baaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa
Oh, man you’re killing me.
It just occurred to me that maybe you’re really a liberal who is masquerading as a stupid conservative.
Is that the case?
Because not even JCH would make such a moronic statement.
Mohamar@24 War experience as in “M’sieur Marlbrorough Va-t-enguerre.
Parlez vous.”
Momar Kadafi @ 24
Come on ASS HOLE, bring on your “war” arguement.
We’ll just quickly dispense with you using FACTS to bash your teeth right down your throat.
Dip Shit.
First he marched them up the hill.
stupid conservative huh.
Let’s see….
Who controls the Executive Branch?
Who controls the Legislative?
Who controls the Judicial Branch?
And know….
Whose talking points fall directly in line with Saddams?
Then he marched them down again.
GBS…
Now give me your emerlad nut, come backs…..
Moahamar@everywhere take your daydreams of war and stuff ’em where the sun don’t shine. The inheritance tax is designed to reduce the undeserving class to working for a living.
@ 24
At the very least, learn how to spell the V.P.’s last name.
God Damn it!! What a fucking idiot.
@ 30
Hitler’s party controlled all of government, too. It didn’t make his followers any smarter.
Dumb Ass.
PS: Do you really think conservatives will continue to hold power in congerss come this November?
If you do, you’ve just proven my point again: You’re an idiot.
Do you really think cantwell stands a chance?
One more down
“Whose talking points fall directly in line with Saddams?
Comment by momus— 2/13/06 @ 2:10 pm
Ummmm, Bush’s. It sounds very similar to the rhetoric Saddam used his case to invade Kuwait.
Moron.
@ 36
I’d offer to make a wager with you, but I’ve already learned that when conservatives lose they just welch on the bet. Like Puddybud. Mark The Redneck also got a reputation for skipping on his word – Gee what a surprise a conservative lying.
NOT!!
Whose talking points fall directly in line with Saddams?
I can’t believe I’m responding to this…
You can’t even get a simple, one-sentence talking point right. The line is supposed to be about OSAMA (or Usama, if you prefer), not Saddam. You’re supposed to be comparing us to terrorists, not deposed dictators.
And to answer the “corrected” question: The Bush Administration. The purpose of terrorism is to induce a level of fear in a population disproportionate to the threat level. In that regard, the GOP’s frequent, shrill proclamations that we are facing the greatest threat in our history and that it requires surrendering our civil liberties to unchecked executive power does a great job of getting O(U)SAMA’s talking points out there.
@35…
Am ention to Hitler.
Are you kidding me? Why is it that you donks always blather about Hitler?
There are no comparrisions as much as you crave for them to be.
HEY GBS, here’s a newsflash. You are in a bubble in Seattle, the rest of the world views you as a punchline
Only 8 1/2 months to go before Republicans lose control of congress. And, less than one year before we can start impeachment hearings.
Yeah, baby!!
Karma, one of God’s best inventions.
Momma’s Boy @18,
Hmm. I hadn’t realized that this was Ancient Rome, where I could only earn my rights of citizenship by fighting on behalf of the emperor.
Everybody who cares to, knows my name… anybody can look up my address… while big talking, chicken shit pussies like you hide behind anonymous screen names. And I’m the coward?
But getting back to the topic at hand… do you have any evidence of any small businesses that have been liquidated due to WA’s estate tax? Do you? DO YOU?! Because you and your fellow angry ideologues are asking us to enact policy based on claims that apparently you simply cannot support.
You have nothing but angry, empty rhetoric, which is why you’ve done nothing in this comment thread but hurl insults and try to change the topic.
Come on… defend the repealing the estate tax!
GBS,
Conservatives don’t control anything. The GOP controls the three branches of the national government. The GOP is not conservative in the slightest. For a pretty good discussion of this, see:
http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.....html#links
It’s an argument I’ve made plenty of times before, but Greenwald does a good job with it, so I’ll just send you over there. Also, see his follow-up from today; it’s quite good.
With a little effort this initiative on the Inheritance Tax can be turned back. Still more proof of the repubugiclans IMPOTENCE in Washington State politics.
We need to follow up on the defeat of I-912. We saved vital revenue to improve and maintain our highway infrastructure. With all the weather related damage to our highways we will be stretched to pay for repairs even WITH the defeat of I-912. That is unless we can save some money by using Moahmar’s lips to clear away some of the slide debris.
Momus:
One more assist by Ted Stevens and Cantwell will beat McGavick by more than Murray beat Nethercutt. As it is, not only does it look like Cantwell will win, but it won’t be particularly close.
goldy has a good point…
HEY MOMUS! DEFEND THE REPEAL OF THE INHERITANCE TAX! (if you can)
The thing about a reality based arguement about our revenue sources is that it has resonance. The weather related damage to our highways just underscored the reality that we HAVE to maintain our infrastucture. . .we cannot neglect it. Rhetoric doesn’t fix highways. . .labor, sweat, and revenue fix ’em. Now, in the USA we have large ancestral repositories of money and power that control the Media, vide Mellon-Scaif and the Murdoch Empires. They have severely impacted our national agendas and national political discourse. . .and have attempted to substitute ideology and fantasy for reality and fact.
The Inheritance Tax is designed to limit this concentration of wealth and power to and protect our free democratic process.
Goldy, is Carns “Momus?” He seems singularly uninformed and stupid if that’s the case. I don’t get the general level of incompetence here; it assumes the average voter is a total dipshit. There are only so many JCH and Mark the Chickenshit’s in the world…eventually, voters get tired of being laughed at, which is what this boils down to.
Another TJ @ 43:
First, let me say thank you for posting an excellent read. Not like Puddybud’s drivel.
The blind loyalty to Bush is what amazes me. They (conservatives) have willfully abandoned all their political principles in support of one man. Much like an allegiance to a King.
I’ve seen the shift as well. Conservative political leaders, particularly those in congress, hold party and individual loyalty above that of the Constitution. They pledged their fidelity to the Constitution, not party or leader.
The hypocrisy over congress not carrying out it’s oversight duties of the executive branch is no longer a debate about intellectual dishonesty. It’s proven that this Republican congress exercised its oversight duties vigorously when President Clinton was in office.
The debate is about moral dishonesty. And the Republicans are on the wrong side of the honesty issue.
I guess the word that comes to mind to describe conservatives is “Tory.”
Conservatives are Tories. Always has, always will.
Is the point of the atate’s inheritance tax to raise funds for the ordinary and necessary functions of goverment, or are there other goals associated with this tax?
Back on topic. Goldy, my inclination isn’t just to defeat a move to repeal the Inheritance Tax, but to aggressively protect ALL our sources of revenue. In the absence of a rational, continuous revenue stream (read Income Tax) we must defend all our current revenue schemes.
The underlying subtext to the Repug strategy seems to be spread disorder and disaffection. Break the revenue stream and then blame governmental failures on the Dems. The answer is to publicize the unreality of their rhetoric. But go further. . .carry the fight to their home ground. Make sure the constituents in ‘Angry Ed’s’ district know he is bloviating and gasifying without real purpose in the Legislature.
“The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counsellors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.”
A Summary View of the Rights of British America ~ By Thomas Jefferson
This one passage summarizes exactly what is wrong within the Republican party in American politics today.
It doesn’t matter if we’re discussing the Iraq War, FEMA, cronyism, the out of control spending, cutting Veteran’s benefits, tax cuts for the wealthy (estate taxes included, just to remain on topic), corruption in congress, outing a CIA covert operative or any other host of disgraceful acts the conservatives are guilty of, it all boils down to the lack of honesty by conservatives.
Period.
Now, momus, argue that.
I too am WAITING for all these TRAGIC examples of entrapenureal hardship to come cascading otu of the vast right-wing-wacko database.
Good thing I’m not holding my breath.
Or REALLY waiting…
…like Vladimir and Estragon.
@52 Argue what?
Politicians lie. name an honest politician? Just one would be good.
And speaking of quotes… Jefferson on Honesty? You mean the Jefferson who lied about his mistress Sally Hemming while at the same time making hard line stances against mixed race relations? Even after death, Jefferson profited off of slavery….
When Jefferson died, he had three options: one, free all his slaves; two, send them back to Africa, and last, sell them. Jefferson sold his slaves.
I go back to my assessment that all politicians are liars.
Oh & and Windie, Goldy, etc…. I’ve never made a comment on the estate tax, as I don’t care about it.
My point was the Governors office issuing Handicapped parking passes to her Executive Staff. A topic you seem to ignore.
@ 54:
Momar, I didn’t think you’d argue the point. But thanks for making mine. Bush is a liar.
Howard Dean told the truth: Not one time went to Democrats, this is a Republcian scandal.
I’m not God, but when Jefferson died, I don’t think he had any OPTIONS.
Moron.
correx at 55
Howard Deans quote should read: Not one DIME. . .
OK momus,All jabs aside for a moment.
If you don’t care about the estate tax, then what is one thing you care about most in politics?
> During the Clinton Administration I had an extremely good and well paying job.
>
>
>
> I took numerous vacations and had several vacation homes.
>
> Since President Bush took office, I have watched my entire life change for the
> worse.
>
> I lost my job.
>
> I lost my two sons in that terrible Iraqi War.
>
> I lost my homes.
>
> I lost my health insurance.
>
> As a matter of fact I lost virtually everything and became homeless.
>
> Adding insult to injury, when the authorities found me living like an animal,
> instead of helping me, they arrested me.
>
> I will do anything that Senator Kerry wants just to insure that a Democrat is
> back in the White House come next year.
>
> Bush has to go.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Saddam Hussein [GBS]
If you don’t care about the estate tax, then what is one thing you care about most in politics?
A fair question, but I think the more relevant one is, if he/she doesn’t care about the estate tax, what is he/she doing commenting in a thread about the estate tax on someone else’s blog? There are open threads aplenty and lots of other blogs for discussing other topics. If he/she can’t find a forum for discussing the topics that interest him/her, he/she can start one.
It’s pretty uncouth to crap in someone’s pool and then complain about the color of the water.
“So… Rep. Wallace is just a metaphor for the rest of her caucus?”
Nah, I don’t think Kevin Carnes is deep enough to think in terms of metaphors. I think he’s just a fucking liar.
Erratum
Excuse me … my mistake … Kevin Carnes is an unfucking liar. There’s no reason to believe this marshmallow ever gets laid.
But if Kevin Carnes DOES get laid, he’s probably butt-fucking armadillos, which would make him a fucking liar instead of an unfucking liar. Under a new Washington law, it also would make him a felon.
What’s this crap about HCP parking permits? Is this another “travelgate” type travesty?
Oh, oh. Black helicopters at 10 o’clock!!!!! Fire, Roger!!!!
Kevin Carnes @4
“Suck my Dick Comment by momus— 2/13/06 @ 12:47 pm”
Physically impossible.
But hey! I have a bunny dick you can suck anytime, Kevin! :D :D :D
For a good time, call 1-800-RABBITS
Hey moonbats – Yer friends in Nawlins and rich guys like me need your help.
In order to pay for tax cuts for the rich… guys like me… FEMA is cutting off payments to Katrina victims a mere 6 months after it hit.
So since you moonbats are so generous and kind, I think you ought to offer your homes to these people for as long as they live. More attentive moonbats may recall my “Adopt a Looter” program suggestion right after it happened, but alas, none of you took me up on the offer. But now you have a second opportunity to demonstrate your caring and compassion.
Let me know how many of you will sign up for this program. I’m waiting…
Anyone who wants to repeal the death tax needs to go visit one of the family owned businesses in the state (our city’s largest newspaper is a good place to start.) Take a look at the spoiled family members with BS jobs and 6-7 figure salaries who do no work and then come back and tell me that we need to “save” family businesses in this state.
67, MtR, What??????? After 6 months in 2 and 3 star motels, no more swimming pools, room service, maid service, amd little bottles of Black Velvet for New Orleans black Democrats? Time to ramp up the buses, and get the welfare trash back to LA in time to register to vote!!!
I care that Howard Dean stays on as the Donkocratic leader!
Puddy – Howard Dean and TSWITW will garntee that GOP wins in ’08. Pssst… don’t give away our secret…
The reason you hear no examples of businesses going under is all the loopholes.These estates are protected with trusts, insurance policies covering buyouts for partners or families. Like the repugs, I can only offer anecdotal evidence. My cousins husband was not even cold when his brother was on the phone to the insurance agent checking on the policy. It was in effect and the buyout was completed with the heirs receiving the insurance check in exchange for rights to the business assets.
Typical wingnut bs.
All anecdote…no evidence.
I find all the recent dick sucking posts very interesting.
But, like most of the blather R’s put down, all talk and no walk. Then there is the bad taste from all the bitter and acrid componets of their chemistry. Like the smell of rotten food, just there in the aura.
Who would be so needy? When there are so many sweet tasting liberals around — they even abound.
Flash — VP Dick issued citation for hunting without a hunting stamp / license. Love it. Of course the Kings Hack does not abide by such triva. Only the peons must follow the plethora of regulations that entangle our lives ie. — new concerns about spitting on the sidewalk.
Bush and company are on the big slide down. Way down.
Here is some real info from the irs and from a group that includes William Gates SR and Warren Buffet.
enjoy.
BTW we are still waiting for that citation of a family farm or small business that was damaged by this law. The car dealers will bluster and whine but remember some of us can look them up on westlaw and see the truth.
Not the rhetoric on the irs site has been “Bushed” but it’s statistics don’t support the rhetoric.
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=108143,00.html
Q: What is the Estate Tax?
The Estate Tax is a tax on your right to transfer property at your death. It consists of an accounting of everything you own or have certain interests in at the date of death (Refer to Form 706). The fair market value of these items is used, not necessarily what you paid for them or what their values were when you acquired them. The total of all of these items is your “Gross Estate.” The includible property may consist of Cash and Securities, Real Estate, Insurance, Trusts, Annuities, Business interests and other assets.
Once you have accounted for the Gross Estate, certain deductions (and in special circumstances, reductions to value) are allowed in arriving at your “Taxable Estate.” These deductions may include Mortgages and other Debts, Estate Administration expenses, property that passes to Surviving Spouses and Qualified Charities. The value of some operating business interests or farms may be reduced for estates that qualify.
After the net amount is computed, the value of lifetime taxable gifts (beginning with gifts made in 1977) is added to this number and the tax is computed. The tax is then reduced by the available unified credit. Presently, the amount of this credit reduces the computed tax so that only total taxable estates and lifetime gifts that exceed $1,000,000 will actually have to pay tax. In its current form, the estate tax only affects the wealthiest 2% of all Americans.
———————
http://faireconomy.org/reports....._falls.pdf
Share of Estates Taxed Falls to Fraction of
One Percent
Just over one in 370 of all estates (0.27 percent)
will pay the federal estate tax in 2006,down
from 2.18 percent in 2000.*By 2009,only one
in 600 estates will owe the tax.
When someone dies,his or her assets (estate)are distributed to heirs.If the total value of the estate is large enough,an estate tax is paid before the remaining assets are distributed.In 2006,all assets under $2 million for individual (and double that amount for couples)are exempted from the estate tax.
The exemption for individuals will increase to $3.5 million in 2009.Because of the higher exemptions,the proportion of estates that pay the estate tax will decrease to 0.16 percent in 2009.
*The number of deaths in the year 2000 is used
for all projections –2003 to 2009 –of the share
of estates paying the estate tax.
Can a return to PRIMOGENITURE be far behind? Why dilute the historical force of a huge wad of cold cash flashing through the ages by distributing it to several heirs?
Really, the logic of trying to turn back the clock escapes me. I still have not seen an example of the fair distribution tax destroying a small business.
Lucy @ 74
Nor will you. Facts do not serve the purposes of the Tories/Republicans. They work with anecdote and metaphor, hearsay,
rumor and innuendo. Facts just confuse the message. It’s not about the facts. It’s about reaching out. That’s why you hear so much from their side about gays and traitors in our midst. That’s why all the barely-concealed racism. It’s all about the distraction and dividing the people against themselves so they don’t see the real enemy to their way of life, namely, the Republican, or as I like to call them, the New Tory Party.
The Tory’s favored tools are fear and ignorance. If the people are kept scared, they’ll always act in their percieved self-interest first, for example, “It’s my money and the Gubmint can’t have it!!!” Second, they’ll go running to their leige-lord for protection, hence all the strident Bush supporters.
The full Tory agenda could not bear being brought to light just yet, hence all the secrecy and lack of bureaucratic oversight. That will change soon, though. The press and the US population grows more complacent each day. As the old man once said, “The end of the world won’t come with a bang, but with a whimper.” The end of our democracy will be the same. Further, they don’t want people smart enough to discern the big picture from the evidence in front of them, hence the attacks on science, the destruction of education budgets, and the promotion of religous devotion over rational thought.
Some of the GOP’s most faithful adherents couldn’t bear to hear the truth that their agenda is about concentrating wealth and power among a few neuveax-riche US families and their cronies in order to rule the masses in their rightful place as aristocrats, so they fool themselves by blathering on about right-to-life and innane morality discussions.
Ask yourself, why all the tax cuts combined with imperial adventures to foreign lands (coming soon: Venezuela and Iran!)? It’s pretty simple: they’re robbing the government. That’s why they repeal every law that was ever passed in order to protect the poor and weak from the rich and powerful. They want to rule the US in perpetuity, but they have to get rid of the federal government to do it. Some of the Republican toadies realize this is the case, but they fool themselves into believing that they will be included among this new US aristocracy. Well, I’ve got news for you GOPers: if you don’t have $100 million in an offshore bank, you don’t get to be in the club, and if your name isn’t some derivative of Bush, Scaife or Coors, you’re never going to have $100 million in an offshore bank.
For the GOP, small government, the right to privacy, balanced press coverage and state’s rights were all fine-and-good when the Democrats still had a hand in government, but now that that isn’t the case any more….well….the whole democratic republic thing was fun, but long live the king, baby.
Sorry — Lucy was @77.
@76? Jeebus. I feel like I’m trying to track down Bush’s National Guard service records.
PUDDYBUD!!!!
When in the HELL are you going to make good on that bet we made last NOVEMBER!?!?!?!?!
Hey, and don’t give me any more BS excueses either.