George W. Wants To Eliminate Inheritance Taxes

It seems that George Bush believes that taking away the privilege of passing on great wealth from generation to generation -- that to somehow impinge on this fortunate one percent of our wealthiest -- would bring a halt to investment in new enterprise, stifle entrepreneurship, and disturb the foundations of capitalism. And that he believes that this billionaire class is the wellspring of the American economy

It is significant that billionaires such as Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and George Soros disagree and oppose the elimination of the death tax.

I say Mr. Bush is merely catering to his patrician roots and to his moneyed supporters, and has not an iota of interest in the fairness to all Americans or to the growing divide between rich and poor.

And the Karl Rove type of disingenuous propaganda that says that elimination of the ”death tax” or the reinstatement of the inheritance tax, would destroy small business, destroy sub chapter “S” corporations, destroy family farms, has somehow become more universally accepted mantra. The truth is, passing a few million dollars to the next generation is not what this is about, and such inheritance is protected now and in the future. What George Bush wants is to protect the passing of billions from one generation to another within a family.

His argument that businesses need to know into the future, what are to be the tax policies of government, is correct. Businesses do need to know this to plan properly – as they have the foresight, apparently that government does not, to look far ahead and to plan for a spectrum of possible scenarios. Yet they, and we, need fair and transparent and user friendly taxes as well – and the Bush administration, in six years, seems not to have made a step towards an overhaul of our mess of a tax system, and its attendant bureaucracy, inefficiency, and complexity.

The continued passing of obscene amounts of inherited family fortunes into perpetuity is unwise, unfair, and is unhealthy to the concepts of individual equality and opportunity in America.

Individuals born into inordinate wealth have little incentive to rise to their own potential, and are too tempted to live lives of self-indulgence, and to develop misguided attitudes of superiority.

Wealth equates to power and the networking of power, in which rest the seeds of corruption and abuse of power, with the attendant denial of freedoms to those of considerably less wealth.

Society might be better served and grow towards a more universal health by a tilt towards egalitarianism rather than away from it.

Continued drift of the wealthy away from the poor can not be sustained in the long run and will inevitably lead to unrest, social disturbance, diminished motivation and individual satisfaction, and finally to revolution - possibly violent.

Individual and family wealth can only occur in America due to the benefits and opportunities this democracy offers, and to the free enterprise system that has been put in place. Thus those who accumulate great wealth under this system can be argued to owe the government a disproportionate tax for this privilege. Great wealth is only made on the backs of many, many individuals who have worked no less, sacrificed no less, and struggled no less than the wealthy individuals who benefit from those efforts. No wealth is created in a vacuum but in the context of a complex and interdependent society. A compassionate and fair society recognizes that the good fortune of some is to an extent the effect of good fortune, special privilege, the accident of birth, and the contributions of others much less rewarded. Certainly at death, an individual so fortunate in wealth should have that wealth largely distributed back to the community.