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H.R. 8, The Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2005 (17 comments ↓)
- This item is from the 109th Congress (2005-2006) and is no longer current. Comments, voting, and wiki editing have been disabled, and the cost/savings estimate has been frozen.
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Visitor Comments
Dave Anderson
July 18, 2006, 3:29pm (report abuse)It's pretty disingenuous to say this bill would save the average family anything. while the average amount per taxpayer brought in by the estate tax might be correct, since less than 1 percent of americans pay any estate taxes at all, the people you are claiming will save money don't actually pay anything to begin with What's more, it's more likely that those average families will end up paying more in taxes in the long run. If the most wealthy families in this country don't pay estate taxes, someone will have to pick up the slack.
Craig
August 1, 2006, 10:14pm (report abuse)Wow...only 1% pay an estate tax. Then why don't we just steal...opps...I meaan tax the entire estate. I mean really, dead people don't vote (unless they're democrats!)
jen
August 7, 2006, 1:43am (report abuse)Repealing the estate tax would give a huge chunk of change to about one in five elected officials in Washington, as roughly a hundred members of Congress are multimillionaires. The president and vice president, who aggressively support the proposal, would save their families roughly $6 million and $10 million respectively.
FACTS: 98 percent of Americans pay no estate tax at all.
As the IRS has reported, half of all the revenues paid in estate taxes are paid by the one-tenth of 1 percent of the population whose estates are worth more than $5 million.
According to IRS data, almost no working farmers ever pay the estate tax.
Trey
August 7, 2006, 1:59am (report abuse)I love how the poor and middle class people get together and decide it is okay to confiscate the money of the rich.
jen
August 7, 2006, 2:00am (report abuse)You know, I have to question who sponsors this site, as calling the estate tax the "death tax" is a Republican talking point to blur the facts and make "everyman/woman" believe it is someway benefiting them... Also stating that it will save the average family $2025.70 is another clue that there's something fishy going on here... hmmmmm. Thanks for the service, but no thanks.
Webmaster
August 7, 2006, 6:52am (report abuse)@Jen - The name of the bill is "The Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2005." WashingtonWatch.com copies bill names verbatim from the legislation. Bills are named by their sponsors and so may convey inaccurate information. It's true that the methodology we use doesn't report tax or spending "incidence," using averages instead, and this legislation has particularly narrow incidence. We have a caution about this (among several others) on WashingtonWatch.com's "about" page. The comment section is here for you to point out issues like the narrow incidence of a tax cut like this one. That said, dynamic economic analysis of costs and savings would tend to "spread" tax and spending incidence across the population, so averaging is not as bad as people might assume for getting a sense of what's going on in D.C. Thanks for the criticism.
rock
August 7, 2006, 8:08am (report abuse)more info here: Death Tax
nick
August 7, 2006, 9:01am (report abuse)and why are we cutting taxes during a time of war??????
where are they getting these numbers from???
nick
August 7, 2006, 9:04am (report abuse)and why are we cutting taxes during a time of war??????
where are they getting these numbers from???
this website sucks. it took me eight tries to post this comment.
Ned
August 7, 2006, 12:52pm (report abuse)This site is a great idea. I agree with some of the comments here that the description and savings of this bill in particular seems particularly skewed, but I like Jen's response.
That said, keep in mind that this site is created by a employee of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
kc
August 7, 2006, 1:36pm (report abuse)I like how the rich band together to promote the new aristocracy, making sure the idiot children of rich parents can look forward to easy street without having to go out and make anything on their own.
Helge
August 7, 2006, 2:43pm (report abuse)Disingenuous is the middle name for Libertarians.
Joe Libertarian
August 7, 2006, 3:10pm (report abuse)Helge is mean.
Socialist
August 8, 2006, 10:04am (report abuse)It's called wealth redistribution, and it's a good thing.
Duane
August 14, 2006, 1:53pm (report abuse)Most large estates are made up of stocks, businesses or land which have multiplied in value without any tax being paid on those capital gains. This is not robbing the rich, just getting them to pay their share.
Capitalist
August 31, 2006, 11:22am (report abuse)Wealth redisribution is NOT a good thing! Whatever gave you that idea?
If you earn it or someone decides to give it to you, that's fine. But don't confiscate my money to give to the people too lazy or stupid to earn their own.
bert
September 19, 2006, 10:50am (report abuse)how about an estate tax exemption for people who serve in the military (in a combat zone, none of this texas national guard stuff during vietnam)?
the rich do their fair share, right?