I just finished reading about a new tax cut for the rich that the Republican House passed, and that the Senate is eager to approve. A $269 billion tax break for the top .2 % - the wealthiest in this country, by getting rid of the estate tax. The estate tax has been part of this country's tax code since the late 18th century, but Republicans think it's time to get rid of it.
They want to get rid of a major source of income that the country has counted on for centuries, at the same time they boo-hoo over the deficit, and while talking out of the sides of their mouths about leveling the playing field for the rest of us. So how do they plan to finagle this in the budget? Right it off to the deficit, of course. No replacement for that income has been proposed, so the deficit will rise through their own actions, not through anything liberals have done. The Republican claim to fame is their blatant ability to say one thing and do the exact opposite, while pretending nobody noticed their underhanded shenanigans.
Of course, President Obama said he will veto it, and some think they don't have the votes to override that veto, but it's the principle of the thing. They have no principles. They have no integrity. I got so angry that I wrote a message to those who think they are the real grass roots Tea Party activists, and I hope a few of those grass roots activists actually see and understand it. I hope they can see what their heroes are doing to their families. I tried to show them the personal consequences of their votes.
The link to the article I read is here: http://www.msnbc.com/...
The full text of my message to the Tea Party is below the fold.
Tea Party Conservatives, Please Wake Up. YOU ARE BEING TREATED LIKE GULLIBLE FOOLS. Republicans in the House have voted to abolish the estate tax, a major source of income for this nation.
Republicans in Congress are making a mockery of your populist movement to benefit themselves and their ultra wealthy campaign donors. THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU. THEY CARE ABOUT THEIR OWN BANK ACCOUNTS AND THE ARISTOCRACY THEY ARE CREATING.
Take a good look at who benefits from abolishing the estate tax. Since there is already a limit on lower end legacy gifts before taxes kick in, this tax break only benefits those who hold wealth beyond your imagination. It does not benefit working families. It creates a class of wealth that will never again pay taxes. Do you want to know who this tax cut will benefit? Go take a look at the Forbes 500 list. Take a good long look down the list and ask yourself if those fat cats need this tax break.
http://www.forbes.com/...
Capital gains taxes are ridiculously low and often avoided by sequestering gains overseas. (Check GE's 0 tax liability.) Losses, tax forgiveness, tax delays, and subsidies may offset capital gains taxes. Tax subsidies for corporations and loopholes for speculators abound in the federal, state, and local laws. Wealth accrued by Wall Street traders is already protected by oversight negligence and loopholes. (Remember how low Mitt Romney's taxes are?) Bankers have the best tax accountants money can buy, the most opportunities to hide wealth from taxation, and the most opportunities to take advantage of loopholes, which were written into the tax code for their sole benefit. Corporate owners and corporate managers already hide money overseas, ready to be collected tax-free at some later date when they move into villas on the Mediterranean. The people at the top do not need a break from taxation. (The top .2 % already receive nearly 90 % of the income/wealth generated in this country.) And now Congress is trying to abolish the estate tax.
Have your taxes been cut recently? Probably not, but if it has, by how much? I am willing to bet it does not come close to this $269 billion tax break Congress is trying to pass for the wealthiest robber barons in this nation.
In the meantime, your children were kicked out of Head Start. You can't afford day care or preschool. Your children's education is being sold out to corporate educators who don't know how to educate children. They know how to force testing on kids, and how to fire teachers with tenure. They know how to cut costs by laying off janitors (who need the work because they lost their retirement funds, either in 2008 during the crash, or because of laws that allow retirement accounts to be obliterated by bankruptcy courts,) and they know how to make school kids clean the toilets instead of tutoring them at the end of the day. Your older children are paying staggering costs and high interest rates on loans to go to colleges that do not educate toward a profession.
Your parents, already on Social Security, or approaching that time of life, are having their retirement age raised, and their benefits cut by Congress. Congress also wants to put SS retirement funds into the stock market, so traders can make more money off of it, and in all likelihood, they will lose their hard earned retirement money to shady stock deals that only benefit traders; to exorbitant fees compounded quarterly; and to further unfair bankruptcy judgments that repay corporations holding debt, while offering nothing to retirees. And Meals on Wheels funds were cut again.
You - hard working, American, home owners - are being taxed into oblivion by local and state taxes, including sales taxes on everything from groceries to gasoline (recently raised again,) and property taxes that the wealthy know how to avoid through offsets in real estate losses. And the fines, fees, and interest rates charged by state and federal tax agencies have shot your tax payments into the stratosphere.
Many of you or your neighbors have lost homes to fraudulent bank practices, after years, sometimes decades, of faithfully making every mortgage payment on time, so you lost all the equity you had gained over time. It's a little like throwing your money into quicksand, because you will never see any benefit from your diligence, and you will never recover the income for which you worked so hard. Other's are so underwater on their mortgages that property taxes may amount to more than their home is worth, or the payments required to keep their homes are far more than they earn after devastating job losses in 2008-2009, and/or more recent loss of bargaining power through the union busting that Republican governors have orchestrated.
Meanwhile, your neighbors' children are going hungry at school so their parents can put gasoline in their car, or buy bus passes to get to work. The people who take care of all your needs, i.e. at restaurants or big box stores, at the hair salon, or in child care, etc. have been cut off from benefits because requirements for benefits have become too difficult to navigate or because benefits have been cut and people are dropped from the system for lack of funding, while their bosses pay them too little to make ends meet, even with working two or three jobs. (The U.S. now ranks as the sixth highest in child poverty rates in the developed world. How's that for American exceptionalism?)
Add up all that you have paid in the past, all that you owe now, and all that you might have to pay in the near future when public services are cut again. Then take a wild guess at how much money your "conservative" government is willing to spend to help you make ends meet, and to keep your roads and bridges safe. Congress is taking it out of your pocket, your bank account, and putting it into the coffers of a new class of aristocracy, which they have systematically created over decades, or they are handing it over to military contractors in larger chunks every year.
Now go back, and take another hard look at that Forbes 500 list.
Do they need $269 billion more in their bank accounts?
Who does Congress work for? You or their wealthy campaign donors?