According to the Internal Revenue Service, “The Estate Tax is a tax on your right to transfer property at your death”
to your heirs. As it stands now, no-one pays ‘Estate Tax” on any
inherited estate unless it exceeds $5.4 million that affects the top 0.2 percent
(two-tenths) of households in America. Everyone else, including the top
1 percent, pays no estate tax for inherited wealth up to $5.4 million.
It is what gives the wealthiest families in America the ability to stay
wealthy and become more powerful from generation to generation all while
paying nothing for newfound wealth. Republicans want to completely
eliminate the Estate Tax to unburden the richest 0.2% of households that
include the likes of Romney and Kochs of America.
If one listens to, or believes, Republicans this
country just has not been as generous to the wealthy as it has the
overwhelming majority of Americans either wallowing in poverty and low
wages or struggling to remain in a rapidly vanishing middle class. It is
worth noting that the median income in America is below $50,000 and
those families not only have little if anything to pass on to their
heirs, they will likely struggle to survive right up until the day they
die. Still, Republicans complain bitterly that the majority of Americans
are sucking money from the government and the wealthy that should be
given to the beleaguered and struggling ‘job creator‘ class.
The only problem with that assertion is that the
wealthy are major recipients of government welfare most Americans are
unaware of. If Republicans can eliminate the estate tax, super-wealthy
families will be able to hoard, and increase, their wealth in perpetuity
and become ever wealthier from other forms of government welfare
Republicans refuse to subject to “reform” revealing the lack of morals they are known for around the world.
It is true that no-one in their right mind would
ever accuse any Republican of having any morals, and in no small part
it is due to demands Republicans make on the working poor and poverty
class in order to receive government aid they need to survive like food
and healthcare assistance; demands and requirements Republicans would
never consider making on their wealthy recipients. Republicans have
never subjected farmers receiving agriculture subsidies, oil companies
receiving billions in subsidies, churches getting hundreds-of-billions
in subsidies, or Pell Grant recipients getting free tuition assistance
to any of the limitations or demeaning requirements they are putting on
poor Americans for something as necessary as food stamps.
Further, wealthy and upper middle-class families
profit handsomely from mortgage interest deductions on not just one
large home, but often two, and they are never required to take a drug
test, prove they are not using their homes for entertainment,
manufacturing methamphetamine, growing marijuana, or letting family
members pay rent under the table. Yet, Republicans in states are
frantically attaching stringent requirements to receive government aid
on the poor, most of whom work low-paying jobs and the elderly and
disabled Americans; including active duty military personnel and recent
Afghanistan and Iraq combat Veterans.
Most Teabaggers and Republicans bemoan federal
assistance to the least advantaged among us but never complain about
hundreds-of-billions of taxpayer-funded corporate, uber-wealthy,
agricultural, or religious welfare because they do not see the free
handouts to those who do not need it. Political scientist Suzanne
Mettler labels it the “submerged state”
effect. Aid such as Food stamps, healthcare assistance, welfare, and
to a lesser degree Social Security and Medicare are highly visible
benefits the barbaric Republicans, especially religious Republicans,
believe should be eradicated to make room for more free welfare for the
rich, corporate agriculture, the oil industry, and religion. The double
mortgage interest deduction, billions in subsidies, and high-income
earners’ tuition deductions are invisible, or “submerged” away from the
public’s gaze. However, it is still free government welfare for those
who already have, and take, enough from the government. The welfare for
the rich, corporations, and churches are handed out “in round-about ways”
through smaller or non-existing tax bills, unwarranted tax refunds, and
payments the better-off do not have to make for Medicare, Social
Security, or are allowed to deduct expenses the poor cannot afford.
As Mettler’s research reveals, a very high percentage of Americans who think they get nothing from the government and complain the poor are draining “their” resources actually benefit more
from any number of federal programs than the working poor and those in
dire poverty including children, the elderly and disabled, and Veterans.
Republicans are well-aware of the welfare for the rich and religious
and as a distraction they consistently incite righteous indignation from
their wealthy donors and anti-government supporters who also rely on
government welfare and want whatever those who need it most might
receive out of sheer greed and ignorance.
As just one example of government aid the wealthy
receive regular Americans cannot is the mortgage interest deduction for
big houses and second homes that benefit 5-million Americans making over
$200,000 annually. Those deductions alone amount to more
housing aid than the over 20-million Americans living on less than
$20,000 a year receive from the federal government; under $20,000 for a
family is considered dire poverty. Because Republicans will not
eliminate or limit deductions for the wealthy (over $200K is wealthy)
they are incited to buy bigger homes, and invest second deductible homes
simply to receive government housing assistance disguised as tax breaks
only the rich qualify for. In fact, according
to the Congressional Budget Office, the special deduction is tantamount
to the government handing wealthy taxpayers free money and not them
keeping more of their own wealth.
The wealthy also get what is known as the ‘yacht deduction‘
because the big boat they own is considered a second home. Plus, if the
big boat is loaned or hired out to a charter business when it is not
being used, the owner can write off all expenses related to a marine
vehicle including purchase price, insurance, maintenance, storage and
docking fees; all while having complete access for personal use. Like a
wealthy person’s first and second home, the yacht deduction is like
getting free welfare from the government just for being rich enough to
own a big boat.
Obviously
there are plenty of other government handouts to the rich that the rest
of the population will never qualify for, much less be aware of, and
they will never be targeted by Republicans the way they focus on social
programs for the poor and middle class. In fact, instead of even giving
the appearance of helping the population, Republicans are specifically
looking to eliminate what few restrictions on the super-wealthy becoming
even more wealthy. The idea of repealing the estate tax is just one
example of Republicans’ working for not just the one percent, but the
richest two-tenths of one percent. What is telling is that this upcoming
vote to help the richest of the rich get much richer comes on the heels
of Republican budget proposals taking even more from the poor and
middle class. The only thing that is curious is why Americans are not
taking to the streets demanding that some Republican heads roll and it
may have something to do with the mainstream media not reporting on what
Republicans are doing or why they are doing it.
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