Yet another reason not to repeal the estate tax comes to us today from the House Government Reform Committee Minority Office. Yesterday, Ranking Member of the committee Henry Waxman (D-CA) released an analysis showing the huge tax windfalls that estate tax repeal would give to the families of the senior executives of six major oil companies - as if they didn't have enough money already.

The analysis finds the six executives would save a total of $211 million from repeal of the estate tax, with former ExxonMobil chief Lee R. Raymond saving the most by far - $164 million. Raymond recently grabbed headlines for an outrageous $400 million retirement package he received from ExxonMobil.

Last year, a similar analysis done by the committee showed how President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and 11 of the president's cabinet members would save potentially $344 million under an estate tax repeal.

And if you still need convincing the movement to repeal the estate tax is being driven by a very small, completely self-interested group of disgustingly wealthy individuals, look no further than a new analysis from United for a Fair Economy and Public Citizen, showing how 18 wealthy families have poured tens of millions of dollars into a lobbying and public relations campaign to repeal the estate tax - an act that would save them a combined $71 BILLION.

If you are outraged at the greed and selfishness of these of people who seem to have no limit to the lengths they will go to hoard more wealth, email your Senator immediately and tell them to preserve the estate tax.

Check out this column, Estate Tax Lunacy, in today's Washington Post. Harold Meyerson succinctly sums up the estate tax situation while disspelling some of the most egregious myths about the tax.

Senate aides said yesterday that estate tax repeal will likely be the third order of business to come up when the Senate returns after the Memorial Day recess. The Senate will vote on full repeal, and after that likely fails, it is Senator Jon Kyl's (R-AZ) intention to bring his "reform" plan up for a vote. His plan is little better than full repeal as it would attain very little of the actual revenue garnered from the estate tax.

Take action on this issue! Contact your Senators and tell them to vote no on repeal and no on Kyl's fiscally irresponsible alternative.

The Hill is running a terribly misinformed op-ed today on the estate tax. The op-ed, which actually calls the victims of the estate tax "real and tragic" in the first paragraph, only gets worse from there. (I personally would not call the situation of any multimillionaire "tragic," but some people like to put a little flair in their writing).

One of the biggest myths perpetuated in this column is the author's assertion that "the estate tax does not even generate much income for the federal government." Estate tax repeal would actually result in a $1 trillion revenue loss for the federal government over a ten-year period. During a time when the government is struggling to shave a couple hundred billion off the budget deficit, it seems like an additional trillion dollar hit would hurt. A lot.

The author of this article, Barbara Kasoff, is the President of an organization called Women Impacting Public Policy. The group claims to be advocates "for and on behalf of women and minorities in business," but really is far more interested in promoting radically conservative economic policies, such as full repeal of the estate tax. It is no coincidence that one of the group's founding members, Pat Soldano, is an extremely wealthy estate planner as well as the President and owner of the Policy and Taxation Group which advocates for the full repeal of the estate tax through lobbying legislators and executive branch officials.

Soldano is profiled in the recent Public Citizen/United for a Fair Economy report on the estate tax. The report names her as "the lobbyist who has represented at least seven of the [extremely wealthy and powerful anti-tax] families, played a central role in the formation of a massive anti-estate tax alliance — the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition — that has served as the main coordinator of the repeal campaign." More information on Soldano and WIPP is available in the report on page 15.

For a much more comprehensive, fair, and balanced article on the estate tax, check out this article which appeared today in KnoxNews. Also see the latest Watcher article on the estate tax.

The anti-tax troops are out in full force on Capitol Hill today, participating in the annual Death Tax Summit which includes lobby visits and speeches from prominent GOP Senators. The National Association of Manufacturers' website states:

Small and medium sized manufacturers are invited to participate in the annual Summit for Permanent Death Tax Repeal in Washington, DC on May 2. The fly-in will include representatives from small businesses in all sectors, many of which belong to organizations, like NAM, that participate in the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition. During the day-long event, family business owners will meet with Members of Congress to discuss the impact of the death tax on their ability to create jobs, invest in needed capital improvements, and continue giving to their local community.

We got word that at the events this morning, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) was blunt with the repeal advocate that they did not have close to enough votes for repeal. He also alluded to the fact that if his compromise wasn't accepted now, things could get much worse for their efforts, particularly after November. Majority Leader Frist also cancelled his appearance at the summit this morning, the reasons are still unclear as to why he did this.

More on Kyl's comments can be read in this Washington Post story.