Estate Tax Realities

The Center for American Progress always has wonderful progressive policy analyses. The Progress Report has the information below for anyone thinking that repealing the Estate Tax will benefit them:

TAXES -- EIGHTEEN FAMILIES BANKROLL ESTATE TAX REPEAL CAMPAIGN: The 10-year effort to repeal the estate tax (aka the Paris Hilton Tax) on heirs of the super wealthy has been financed and coordinated by just 18 families, according to a new report by Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy. The families include “the candy magnate Mars family, Waltons of Wal-Mart fame, Kochs of Koch Industries and Dorrance family of the Campbell’s Soup Co.” Together, they are worth a total of $185.5 billion. The estate tax repeal would “collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion.” Bending to the will of these families, House and Senate conservatives are proposing to permanently repeal the estate tax -- or seek a “compromise” that is nearly as bad -- even though such a move would cost over three quarters of a trillion dollars in the next decade. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has promised a vote on repeal in May. Meanwhile, a new poll finds that 57 percent favor reforming or leaving alone the estate tax; only 23 percent back repealing it. And for good reason: Americans are about four times as likely to be hit by lightning than to have to pay estate taxes on small businesses or farms.

John Shimkus (IL-19) is nothing if not a walking foregone conclusion lacking an original thought (if he even knows what one is). Therefore, his corporate constituents and the residents of IL-19 know how he votes every time.

Too bad no one living in Central and So. IL will ever benefit from his Roll Call vote.