Democrats have shown disrespect for life with tax
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Jon Delaney
Published: December 3, 2008
The Democrats just do not respect life.
I am not referring to president-elect Barack Obama’s extreme positions on abortion, or “reproductive freedom.”
What I am referring to is the Democrats’ intention to let the 2001 Bush tax cuts expire come 2011.
This, essentially, provides financial incentives for people to die faster.
While I admit this tactic does shore up support among the coveted population control enthusiasts, it is an otherwise hideous employment of activist government.
Given the results of the 2008 elections, it looks like this is one promise of “change” the Democrats may be able to deliver on.
By allowing the 2001 tax cuts to expire, the inheritance tax resets to its 2001 level of taxation after 2010 (values greater than $1 million are taxable at a rate up to 55 percent).
The way the law stands today, the amount of taxable inheritance has dropped — and will continue to drop— through 2009 culminating in zero amount taxable in the year 2010 (therefore, the optimal year to die is 2010).
We all know the fairness of the Democrats’ intentions to tax wealth that someone is trying to keep in the family.
After all, economic justice has no sympathy for those who have worked hard and taken on risks and sacrifices throughout their lives to earn their wealth.
We all now know that a seeming majority of voters accepts the fact that we have an obligation to “spread the wealth.”
I can certainly see the logic in attempting to balance the scales of cosmic justice. However, using a tax break to benefit the heirs of people who die by a predetermined date sets a new precedent for the Democrat Party’s disrespect for life.
Jon Delaney
Springfield
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Posted by ( wolfgang ) on December 03, 2008 at 7:57 pm
As a retired Economics Professor at University, and recovering socialist, I found Herr Delaney’s letter a delightful fusion of sharp insight and subtle wit. I am in favor of repealing this inheritance tax, for the following reasons:
- it is double taxation
- it is consonant with the leftist preference to disincentivize success and the attainment of wealth , similar to the progressive tax system.
- I am in support of those who would rather pass the wealth they have earned to their kin volk, rather than letting the government central planners dole it out to unions, the aggrieved, the entitled and other special interests.
- If as claimed earlier is true of the American income tax system, that most do not pay due to exemptions or presumably some sort of trust arrangement, that is an argument in support of repealing the inheritance tax, nicht war?
Respectfully,
Wolfie Hinck
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Posted by ( rjma ) on December 03, 2008 at 7:36 am
It would be nice to have an honest discussion without the incendiary rhetoric. Can you spell “exemptions”? There are so many that in 2006 the IRS fired almost half their estate tax lawyers because so few were having to pay. The headline used was usually deceptive.
Couldn’t get your letter printing in a paper up north?
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Posted by ( El Debibble ) on December 03, 2008 at 6:38 am
Could this be any more ridiculous and reaching? You lost, man up, quit crying. BTW - the only estates that are impacted by the so called “death tax” would be those of someone too ignorant to take some easy steps that would not only protect their assets, but make the transition to the heirs much easier.
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