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Advocacy Blog
Friday, June 02, 2006
Update On the Estate Tax from Our Budget Department
>When Congress returns from their week-long Memorial Day recess
next week, the Senate is expected to take up a vote to repeal the
estate tax, perhaps as early as Wednesday, June 7. And while
Republicans are unlikely to garner the 60 votes needed to pass full
repeal of the tax, there is a possibility a sham "reform" plan championed by Sen.
Jon Kyl (R-AZ) or an extremely costly one from Sen.
Max Baucus (D-MT) could gain the necessary support to pass.
Sen. Kyl's proposal amounts to nothing more than back-door repeal of
the tax as it would cost upwards of 85 percent of the cost of full
repeal.
There was an excellent column in the Washington Post on May 31
called Estate
Tax Lunacy. Columnist Harold Meyerson succinctly
sums up the current estate tax situation, correctly pointing out that
"If enacted, Kyl's bill would plunge the government another trillion
dollars into the red during the first decade (2011-2021) that it would
be in effect.... To cover those and other needs, Congress will either
plunge us deeper into debt or increase some other levies -- payroll
taxes, say -- that will come out of the pockets of the 99 percent of
Americans whom the estate tax doesn't touch."
Additionally, Rep. Henry Waxman's Committee on Government
Reform staff has put together a report
analyzing the impact repeal would have on the families of six senior
executives of major oil companies. It reveals that estate tax repeal
would give over a $200 million windfall to the six families of the
executives.
Today, the Americans for a Fair Estate Tax Coalition, in
partnership with the Coalition on Human Needs and the Emergency
Campaign for America's Prioirities and other partners sent a letter to the Senate signed by
over 700 national, state, and local organizations from all fifty states
urging every Senator to oppose efforts to repeal or gut the estate tax.
You can read the letter and view the signatories here.
Posted by Jennifer Lowe
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