seen this? 18 rich families pay for campaign to kill estate taxes

[godhatesrepublicans]

18 rich families pay for campaign to kill estate taxes
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Sabrina Eaton
Plain Dealer Bureau

Washington -- Eighteen of America's wealthiest families, including the Timkens of Canton, are bankrolling efforts to permanently repeal estate taxes that would save their families a total of $71.6 billion, according to a report released Tuesday by public interest groups.

Groups funded by the super-rich have engaged in a deceptive campaign to convince the public that estate taxes cause widespread problems for small businesses and family farms when they actually affect about one in 370 estates, said the report released by Public Citizen and Boston-based United for a Fair Economy.

This year, all assets under $2 million for individuals and under $4 million for couples are exempt from estate taxes. Current tax law will boost those exemptions to $3.5 million and $7 million in 2009, eliminate the estate tax in 2010, and reimpose it in 2011 with a $1 million exemption.

The House voted to permanently repeal the estate tax last year, but the measure stalled in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to override filibusters. Majority Leader Bill Frist says he will bring the bill up in May.

Ohio Republican Sen. Mike DeWine wants to repeal the tax because he says it hinders economic growth and penalizes society's most productive members, while Ohio GOP Sen. George Voinovich says the cost of eliminating it is too great: about $290 billion over the next 10 years. Voinovich would prefer a compromise to elevate the minimum threshold for estate tax liability to $3.5 million and regularly adjust it for inflation.

Groups that support estate tax repeal say they're close to getting the 60 votes they need. Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform says 68 percent of Americans want the tax eliminated. He says estate taxes affect a broad range of people and dismissed the report's contention that it only affects the super rich as "tired rhetoric of hate and envy."
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[havocmom]

1. Pssst, might wanna trim that down so you don't violate copyright laws

;)

[JDPriestly]

2. Back in 2003-2004, Bush visited a Timken factory in Ohio

and congratulated the workers on their good work. Shortly after that, the Timkens closed the factory and fired many if not most of the employees. What a bunch of self-centered, greedy, unpatriotic . . . .

[acmejack]

3. Those eighteen families run America my friend

We play with out democracy, they attempted to overthrow FDR once and have aggressively worked to rid themselves of the New Deal ever since. They have finally reached the culmination of a sixty year long campaign to shed the yoke of paying for infrastructure for the proles. No more, they have managed to get us fools to spurn the reprehensible "death tax!"

[Ian David]

4. They'll need to save money to pay ransom when we kidnap their children

Some people say.