Today’s economic lesson will be delivered by Deroy Murdock, a columnist for Human Events Online. He will explain “How Death Tax Shafts Black Americans.”.
“That death tax is one bad mo …”
“Shut yo’ mouth!”
“Hey, I was just talking about how the Democrats are shafting fine young black Americans, such as Nicole Richie.”
“Then I can dig it.”
No, wait, Deroy’s piece goes a little something like this:
After their Independence Day recess, Republican senators will try again to declare America independent of the death tax. As Democrats ponder their position, they should consider how this levy hurts their most dependable supporters: black Americans.
Democrats should certainly consider this, since otherwise they could lose the support of Bill Cosby’s heirs.
“Employees of family businesses, many of whom are minorities, are at risk of losing their jobs because their employers are forced to pay the unfair and exorbitant death taxes levied on them,” CBC member Sanford Bishop (D.- Ga.) said in that day’s debate. “Funeral homes, weekly newspaper publishers, radio station owners, and local dry cleaners, all are affected all across the demographic spectrum…”
Well, the entire demographic spectrum that includes the wealthiest 2% of all Americans (per the IRS). But yeah, I guess it might include some really rich local dry cleaners and morticians.
Bishop, who co-sponsored The Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2005, added: “Although reasonable minds may differ on this issue, I believe that the death tax is politically misguided, morally unjustifiable, and downright un-American.”
And although reasonable minds may differ on this issue, I believe that anybody who wants to repeal the estate tax is a misguided, selfish, unpatriotic bastard who hates America, and who should be investigated by the FBI for possible war crimes.
Currently at 46 percent and falling, the death tax will vanish in 2010. But without permanent repeal, it will boomerang to 55 percent in 2011. That will hammer prosperous families, black and otherwise.
Let’s all take a moment to shed a tear for those prosperous families, even the ones who aren’t black, who might be forced to part with an extra 9% of the millions they will inherit in 2011.
As Cato Institute tax analyst Chris Edwards ominously observes, “If you are in poor health in 2010 and you own substantial personal or business assets, your heirs might favor your prompt departure.”
And that’s why we must do away with the death tax – so your loving family doesn’t have you killed now for the tax break. (I think this is a very important issue, and I thank Deroy for bringing it to our attention.)
Liberals love to discuss social capital — in essence the idea that the silver spoons of “old-moneyed” whites repress minorities. The obvious answer is to help minorities acquire their own silver spoons, in part by letting successful non-whites bequeath their riches to their heirs.
Um, no, the obvious answer is to give each person an equal shot at acquiring his or her own wealth through his or her own efforts.
A 1997 Kennesaw State College study discovered that 90 percent of black business owners surveyed believe the death tax hindered their long-term growth prospects.
Maybe it’s just me, but I would imagine that death might be a bigger hindrance to their plans than estate taxes.
Writing in the June 14 edition of Alabama’s Anniston Star, Senator Jeff Sessions (R.-Ala.) recalled his day-earlier discussion with Robert Johnson, the well-heeled founder of Black Entertainment Television. Johnson, Sessions wrote, “explained how devastating the death tax was” to black entrepreneurs. “He explained how his company was strong and vigorous, but it was small compared to CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox. If something happened to Mr. Johnson, the death tax owed by his estate would be huge and his heirs would have to sell, most likely to ‘some big conglomerate,’” rather than another black owner.
But aren’t big conglomerates actually owned by shareholders, which could include middleclass black Americans? So, shouldn’t we rooting for these people over the heirs of the well-heeled Robert Johnson?
Before his ethical problems exploded, CBC member Rep. William Jefferson (D.-La.) delivered a floor speech on the death tax that supply-side economics guru Arthur Laffer could have written.
And before HIS ethical problems exploded, Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham wrote, “Death should not be a taxable event. ” So, we can see that corrupt politicians want to abolish estate taxes. Deroy makes another very valid point.
Senate Democrats claim to be among the best friends black Americans ever had. If so, they can help us overcome by helping Republicans kill the death tax, once and for all.
Because helping black Americans who inherit estates valued at over $2 million avoid paying taxes on their unearned wealth should be a goal for both political parties. And hey, the goverment would just use the money it took from those rich heirs to pay for Head Start, or free lunches for poor kids, or something stupid like that. Therefore, anybody who doesn’t oppose the Death Tax is a racist.
13 Responses to “Economic Advice You Can Use!”
I have to agree, a death tax is morally reprehensible and–
wait a minute, are we talking about the estate tax?
wait a minute, are we talking about the estate tax?
Deroy writes: “As Cato Institute tax analyst Chris Edwards ominously observes, ‘If you are in poor health in 2010 and you own substantial personal or business assets, your heirs might favor your prompt departure.’”
Using the same logic, should you die before then, your heirs might favor hiding your corpse in an upstairs bedroom until the estate tax zeroes out in 2010.
Wow, do people really think in these terms?
Using the same logic, should you die before then, your heirs might favor hiding your corpse in an upstairs bedroom until the estate tax zeroes out in 2010.
Wow, do people really think in these terms?
“Advice,” s., not “advise,” unless you’re making a pun I’m too dumb to get.
Sorry, I’m on the mend from a sprained wrist and rediscovering the joy of typing.
Sorry, I’m on the mend from a sprained wrist and rediscovering the joy of typing.
Although reasonable people may disagree, I believe it is morally reprehensible to attempt to sell things like estate tax repeals and school vouchers on the backs of the people who are least likely to benefit from them.
“Thanks, Chris. I’m trying to ignore the kittens while I blog, but their pounding of the cage bars and shouting of “Attica, Attica!” is affecting my concentration.”
Shouldn’t they be shouting “Cattica, Cattica!”, instead?
Shouldn’t they be shouting “Cattica, Cattica!”, instead?
Uh, well, just for the record: the adjusted total taxable estate has to exceed $1 M before you pay any tax at all, and it doesn’t apply to spouses.
And I’m not sure on what planet Jeff Sessions and Robert Johnson held last month’s tete-a-tete, but Johnson’s family will never have to face the horror of selling off the familiy dry cleaners to pay the estate tax. BET was sold to Viacom six years ago, for $3 billion, in a deal that made Johnson the second largest Viacom shareholder. With the $1.3 B he personally pocketed from the deal he could hire his two children to do nothing for $1 M a month each for the next 56 years. Of course they’ll have to pay income tax, the poor dears, but they could console themselves with the idea that their father earned his living from tax dollars for the first four years of his working life, before becoming a lobbyist for the cable industry for the next four. Maybe those tax dollars will serve as seed money for the next billionaire schlock merchant.
Since we’re havin’ so much fun, let’s also note that at a certain point Johnson’s entrepreneurial efforts turned from the creation of employment opportunities to the creation of paper wealth for himself, something which might have stabbed every one of his employees in the back without the government’s help.
And I’m not sure on what planet Jeff Sessions and Robert Johnson held last month’s tete-a-tete, but Johnson’s family will never have to face the horror of selling off the familiy dry cleaners to pay the estate tax. BET was sold to Viacom six years ago, for $3 billion, in a deal that made Johnson the second largest Viacom shareholder. With the $1.3 B he personally pocketed from the deal he could hire his two children to do nothing for $1 M a month each for the next 56 years. Of course they’ll have to pay income tax, the poor dears, but they could console themselves with the idea that their father earned his living from tax dollars for the first four years of his working life, before becoming a lobbyist for the cable industry for the next four. Maybe those tax dollars will serve as seed money for the next billionaire schlock merchant.
Since we’re havin’ so much fun, let’s also note that at a certain point Johnson’s entrepreneurial efforts turned from the creation of employment opportunities to the creation of paper wealth for himself, something which might have stabbed every one of his employees in the back without the government’s help.
The truth of the matter is that this is targeted to white folks who have never talked to a black person in their life. Of course, if they really wanted to prove their non racist cred, they could read up on the real situation, but..
corrupt politicians want to abolish estate taxes
Well, of course. They stole it fair and square – why should they have to give it back?
Well, of course. They stole it fair and square – why should they have to give it back?
I don’t understand why the media lets them get away with this… Oh, wait, maybe it’s because the big cheeses at the media outlets are likely to have estates in excess of $2 mil.
Call me a cynic…
Call me a cynic…
A 1997 Kennesaw State College study discovered that 90 percent of black business owners surveyed believe the death tax hindered their long-term growth prospects
I dunno. You gotta love that, don’t you? Leaving aside that this is a nearly ten year old poll and we’re in something of a recession at the moment, of course. In the real world, what this sentence means is, “As our propaganda campaign has been successful in convincing people of something untrue, we win, and it is now true.”
Didn’t someone do a study that said that fifty percent of Americans think they’re in the top ten percent, economically?
We’re so charmingly optimistic, so usefully naive.
I dunno. You gotta love that, don’t you? Leaving aside that this is a nearly ten year old poll and we’re in something of a recession at the moment, of course. In the real world, what this sentence means is, “As our propaganda campaign has been successful in convincing people of something untrue, we win, and it is now true.”
Didn’t someone do a study that said that fifty percent of Americans think they’re in the top ten percent, economically?
We’re so charmingly optimistic, so usefully naive.
Didn’t someone do a study that said that fifty percent of Americans think they’re in the top ten percent, economically?Yeah, you gotta figure that a lot of those people are in the $300k-500k/year range, and that they really have not a single *clue* about the truly astonishingly large sums of money the top 10% rake in. Suckers.
Hoo-boy, I actually looked it up! The latest CBO data linky is for 2003, and the top 10% would indeed include those folks, Marq: the average after-tax income of the top 5% was $138,500, the top 1% $701,500. It’s gone up since, but $300-500k makers are still pretty comfortably in the top 10% because that size group is large enough to dilute the obscene wealth at the tippy top, the VERY few people making HUGE amounts of money, a tiny fraction of 1%.
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