Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, two of only nine Democrats to vote in favor of raising the federal estate tax exemption from $7 million to $10 million, and lowering the top rate from 45% to 35%, apparently both told Publicola’s Chris Kissel that they did so to reduce the financial strain on “small businesses.”
“Small businesses are hurting and we need to make sure they’re protected,” said Murray spokeswoman Alex Glass.
Um… define “small,” but… whatever.
Kissel goes on to suggest the real motivation behind our senators’ vote:
The measure will have the greatest impact on wealthy folks like Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen, who unsuccessfully lobbied both Murray and Cantwell to vote for a repeal of the estate tax in 2006. That same year, voters here rejected a measure that would have repealed Washington State’s estate tax.
Gee, I dunno. With McClatchy essentially writing off its 49.5% stake in the Times, I’m not so sure that lowering the estate tax’s top rate helps Blethen and his heirs all that much. I mean, 35% of zero is still zero, isn’t it?
Talk about a clever estate planning strategy.
So you have a chance to criticize Cantwell and Murray and/or extrapolate this vote into the greater betrayal of his base that Obama’s been engaging in and really become ‘the hard hitting critic of the Democrats’ that you called yourself awhile back and yet you turn it into another Seattle Times bash.
kirk91, I can certainly buy the Cantwell/Murray angle on this one — not only were their votes shamefully anti-egalitarian, the outcome of the vote on that amendment was 51-48. Their “Yea” votes are the reason it passed.
In so voting, they collaborated with the most conservative elements of the Senate Democratic caucus — Baucus, Bayh, Landrieu, Lincoln, the Nelsons, and Pryor (for reasons that escape me, Tester also supported the amendment).
This vote was deemed so important that the ailing Ted Kennedy was on the Senate floor to cast a vote (“Nay”, of course). Hell, even Joe Lieberman voted against it! Yet Patty and Maria, who have often voted against estate-tax zealotry in the past, somehow embraced the Blethen viewpoint on this one. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
OTOH, how do you connect this Senate vote to President Obama? He had nothing to do with it. The great majority of his fellow Democrats in the Senate opposed it, as I’m sure he would have if he’d been involved.
There have been some disappointments (vastly outweighed by the positives, however) thus far in the Obama presidency, but this particular Senate vote isn’t one of them.
Goldy–
Your obsession with Blethen’s and the Times is getting out of hand. You need some serious mental health counseling. Lots of Progressives are in that field…I’m sure someone of your ILK will give you a good deal.
The whole Estate Tax thing is just another way to kill individual incentive. Yet another Marxist love affair. Take what someone else has worked for and distribute it to the masses via Big Government (what’s left of it after “overhead” gobbles up a huge hunk).
Help me out Goldy. How does the obsession of Atheist Progressives with Other People’s Money differ from what Karl Marx said??
Karl Marx:
From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs….even in death.
This is clearly redistribution of wealth at it’s most obvious.
Hey, I probably won’t have to pay any Estate Taxes (or very little) if I live long enough.
And their are plenty of ways to shelter wealth through Foundations & Trusts if I do.
But I am a grown-up who feels envy of others possessions is a sin. Atheists obviously have no moral rock for their beliefs so they knee-jerk react based on “feelings”. That’s why you KLOWNS are the 14%ers and always will be.
I do know that Estate Taxes can be destructive to family-held businesses as a going concern. I also believe in the final analysis, that they have little positive effect on the economy.
Get help Goldy.
And get a job, take risks…then tell me how you feel after you sacrifice to build wealth.
You KLOWNS feel that individual wealth is a sin…mainly because you are unwilling to take the risks and make the sacrifices necessary to build wealth.
Your jealous reeks.
Cynical, we’ve had an estate tax for a century or so … a century of unprecedented entrepreneurship and incentive-taking in the United States. A century that’s been universally recognized as “the American century”.
The Blethen family has prospered for four generations while there has been an estate tax.
IOW, as usual, you’re full of shit.
N in–
And for centuries, families have gone thru all kinds of machinations to avoid Estate Taxes…benefitting attorneys, accountants and banks.
@3 Perhaps now is a good time to familiarize Mr. Klynical with the symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
From the Mayo Clinic site:
“Believing that you’re better than others
Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness
Exaggerating your achievements or talents
Expecting constant praise and admiration
Believing that you’re special
Failing to recognize other people’s emotions and feelings
Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans
Taking advantage of others
Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior
Being jealous of others
Believing that others are jealous of you
Trouble keeping healthy relationships
Setting unrealistic goals
Being easily hurt and rejected
Having a fragile self-esteem
Appearing as tough-minded or unemotional
Although some features of narcissistic personality disorder may seem like having confidence or strong self-esteem, it’s not the same. Narcissistic personality disorder crosses the border of healthy confidence and self-esteem into thinking so highly of yourself that you put yourself on a pedestal. In contrast, people who have healthy confidence and self-esteem don’t value themselves more than they value others.
When you have narcissistic personality disorder, you may come across as conceited, boastful or pretentious. You often monopolize conversations. You may belittle or look down on people you perceive as inferior. You may have a sense of entitlement. And when you don’t receive the special treatment to which you feel entitled, you may become very impatient or angry. You may also seek out others you think have the same special talents, power and qualities — people you see as equals. You may insist on having “the best” of everything — the best car, athletic club, medical care or social circles, for instance.
But underneath all this grandiosity often lies a very fragile self-esteem. You have trouble handling anything that may be perceived as criticism. You may have a sense of secret shame and humiliation. And in order to make yourself feel better, you may react with rage or contempt and efforts to belittle the other person to make yourself appear better.”
Fits Mr. Klynical to a “T”.
It’s pretty evident that Murray and Cantwell voted the way they did because they want Uncle Frankie and his scribes to write nicey-nicey things about them when we’re supposed to decide whether they get to keep their jobs.
Not surprising, but a little disappointing.
Now steve–
I am not at all into material things.
I do not insist on having the “best” of everything….far from it.
Seems like you are projecting Mr. Kountry Klubber.
I would never join a private Golf Klub like you Kountry Klubber steve.
So who, by their actions, is a narcissist??
If the Golf Shoe fits steve!
@3 “The whole Estate Tax thing is just another way to kill individual incentive.”
Capitalists have so many free rides and other incentives even the Beijing commies are investing trillions in the U.S. of Screw-the-Workers A.
I wouldn’t have any problem with a $10 million estate tax exemption if wage earners also got a $10 million tax exemption. All I’m asking for is equal treatment of those who work for a living and Trust Fund Babies.
The estate tax exemption should be pegged to the wage earner exemption. That way, it’ll automatically adjust for inflation and Congress won’t have to ever touch it again, and can turn their attention to more important matters, such as the difficult task of figuring out how to balance the budget on the backs of workers who are losing jobs and suffering wage cuts as more and more unearned income is exempted from taxation.
The way this would work is, last year’s personal exemption was $3,500 and this year is $3,650, and dead people should get the same exemption as when they were alive, so the estate exemption would be $3,500 in 2008 and $3,650 in 2009. That’s fair to everyone, and dead people don’t care what the taxes on their estates are, anyway.
@5 This is a reason to not tax people who get multimillion-dollar inheritance windfalls while taxing the shit out of workers? Because they can afford slippery lawyers and accountants, and Joe Lunchbucket can’t? So typical of the Republican freeloader mentality.
@8 So you’re admitting your golf game is so bad you won’t let your Republican buddies watch you play?
I don’t see that “TJ” troll here this morning. Looks like he decided not to stick around after he found out I’m still alive. He’s got a yellow streak as wide as that chickenshit John MacDonald, who went crawling back to Sucky Politics after only 2 weeks of collecting his due on HA. This time, “TJ” lasted only 1 day. What a pansy.
The only people more gutless than our trolls is Democratic politicians.
13 Nah. They just don’t like to play where he does, and have to putt around the sheep droppings.
15 RR…well said
I think Blethens is a total manipulator and is subverting our Senators into this illogic.
First: He and his wife can gift his kids money every year.
Second: He could set up the board of the corporation and issue stock.
I am sure there are other ways to deal with it taxwise. The bottom line is that while he wants his family to inherit after he dies, he DOES NOT TRUST them with any real ownership interest now.
Just based on pure logic, any argument he uses about keeping the Times in the family is completely bogus.
To answer 2 N in Seattle ‘how does this tie in with Obama’
So far Obama has broken promises to his base on the FICA bill, card check, the stimulus bill, the unending giveaways to the richest and largest companies via the various TARP, TARF, and other ppp programs, ending the war in Iraq and removing all the troops and prosecuting any of the Bush administration for any one of a number of terrible crimes; and the only promise that he’s kept appears to be that involving escalating the unwinnable war in Afghanistan and spreading it into the nuclear armed Pakistan.
So Obama’s turned his back on his alleged base and pandered to the top 1% the same way Cantwell and Murray have done with their vote on the estate tax break.
oops I mean FISA above