This would be a tax giveaway of 1 TRILLION Dollars to the most weathly Americans...

Which was taxed when it was earned and on which every penny of interest has already been taxed. As you point out, this applies only to the weathy, not to anyone who leaves an inhertitance, and amounts to little more than economic discrimination.

Chances are good that the money will be used to do one of three things if we hand it over; it will be given to charity to help defer other tax burden, it will be invested back into the economy, or it will be used to by luxury itmes, which are heavily taxed on their own. The fact is, while I understand that the Death Tax is part of the proportional taxation system in this country, I'm not sure that it is a good idea.

Sure, we are wasting money (and lives) left and right, but maybe people will be more outraged when the money has to come out of their favorite program due to reduced tax revenue. The fact is that the problem with the buget and the economy are based on misplaced values and poor judgement. The American people have asked for this and only changing their mind set will help.

People will only look for a solution when they see a problem. Education only works when people want to learn. Maybe this will spark the kind of change we desperately need.

Jesus Christ.

First off, Money is double, triple, quadruple taxed ALL THE TIME. I pay income tax, I use some of that money to buy improvements for my home, I pay a sales tax, I then get taxed again by both the county and city for the increase in value of my property.

And of course it applies to the wealthy, THEY ARE THE ONES WITH THE MONEY TO TAX! And you can spout all the BS you want about trickle down economics and how if we let these people keep all the money, they'll buy more stuff which stimulates economic growth. The facts are cold and hard, it didn't work under Reagan and it hasn't worked under Bush. There's a reason that school of thought was called "Voodoo Economics".

POINT IS. We are facing a NATIONAL FUCKING CRISIS. You can argue until you're blue in the face about how unfair we are being to Millionaire Heirs, but NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE DISCUSSING REPEALING THESE TAXES. Fix the Gulf Coast, balance the budget, fix the schools and infrastructure, AND then we can talk about "fixing" the tax code.

Until then cry me a fucking river that the rich are being taxed "unfairly".

You know, maybe when they cut your daughter's Medicaid to allow the wealthy "to by luxury itmes", or your wife's school funding, or her job because there's no longer money for the mentally handicapped and the state schools, or the next time you need to go to the emergency room and there's a 8 hour wait because there's no longer adequite medical funding or insurance, THEN you can tell me how this is such a bad idea.

Again, the issue is not that we don't tax enough. The issue is that Americans are constantly looking for a better deal. As prices go down, the cuts have to come from somewhere. People want to pay less for a product, then the people who make the product get payed less. At some point, you just have to find people who will work for less. That is the problem facing the US now. No one here will make a product for the kind of money that they are willing to buy it for. The problem isn't with not taxing enough...

We are fighting a war we can't win against an enemy we can't target and running up a bill we can't pay. That's why the Levies failed. That's why the funding for social support programs is disapearing. That's is the current biggest problem.

My point is that I am in favor of equality of opportunity. What the Death Tax is after is equality of results. You can't insure quality of results because some people are stupid and/or lazy. That is a hard fact. I believe that we need to support people who are ina bad place and trying to fight their way out. I believe that Education should be a right garanteed by the Constitution as part of the basic social contract. But, like all rights, you have to choose to claim them. You have to choose to speak out. You have to choose to assemble. You have to choose to seek happiness, because no one promised you more than the chance to pursue it.

Supply Side ecomonics did not fail. It did just what it was intended to do. It created jobs AND consumers and the GNP has gone up becase of it. The fact that the people living in this country do not value the work of their compatriots has nothing to do with the success or failure of the theory.

I do believe that it is essential to have a gradiant taxation system and social support policies in order to provide a better opportunity to those who are comming from poor families. Otherwise, we would be punishing the children for the failure of the parents. The thing is, the Estate Tax punishes success.

And, for the record, every tax that you just mentioned is just the government taking its rent for granting you a great country. Income tax from the national level, sales tax from the state and local. Property taxes pay for the things that make your property valuable, like good schools and a police department and the increase in taxes is no different from being taxed on the income from any other investment. In fact, that makes many home improvements deductable, as they will tax the "income" at the time when the house is sold.

You just have to know the system to use it effectively.

Seems to me that economic discrimination is when you drown in your own backyard because you were too poor to get out of town before a hurricane hit.

No, that is poor planning. The failure of the levies and the failure of the evacuation has nothing to do with the estate tax. That money went to Iraq and the war is primarily to blame for the failure. The estate tax is still in place, and the extra income it is bringing in didn't save those people, which makes this argument pretty silly.

In addition, I am dirt poor. I haven't got much too loose besides my family. Tell me one reasons, aside from medical necesity, that a person couldn't get out of New Orleans in the 4 days between the warning that this could be the most powerful huricane ever to hit the US and that it was headed right at New Orleans and the time that it actualy landed miles away, doing much less damage than had been expected? I know I would have gotten my family out if I had to carry them on my back. For Christ's Sake, the city is below sea level. They watch boats glide by at eye level from the second floor balconies. They knew this was likely to happen someday and they were warned that that day was comming.

The loss is tradgic, and now is the time to act on our most compassionate instincts, but let's not ignor that, with better planning and a little realism, we can avoid this level of human disaster in the future.

Tell me one reasons, aside from medical necesity, that a person couldn't get out of New Orleans in the 4 days between the warning that this could be the most powerful huricane ever to hit the US and that it was headed right at New Orleans and the time that it actualy landed miles away, doing much less damage than had been expected?

Here's one: Getting out of New Orleans (assuming you mean "if you don't have a car & can't afford public transport then up and WALK - carrying your children if you have to) wouldn't help for squat. The devastation reached over ONE HUNDRED MILES INLAND. There aren't many Americans that can easily walk one hundred miles in 4 days.

That accounts for dozens of people, I'm sure.

Here's some advice: If you don't have a way out, some level of resources that will allow you to move a few hundered miles inland, say, don't live on the coast. More over, don't choose to live on the streets of a city that is one good hard rain away from washing out to sea.

I agree that the evacuation failed. They had the estate tax budgeted in from the last three years. The money for emergency management in southern LA was still reduced because of the war. The Estate tax had nothing to do with this disaster.

More over, even 40 miles inland, which is not so hard a trek to make, even on foot, in four days, they would not have been safer from the winds, but it wasn't the winds that were the greater problem. It was the water, (drowning in the backyard, were they?). Even the water that dropped on New Orleans wasn't all that bad, but it was the accumulation of water towering over our little Atlantis that broke the levy and caused the flooding. Flooding isn't nearly as big a concern when you get to some moderate elevation.

Fact is that your example only holds up for the homeless, and while I am not unsympathetic to the fact that the economy stinks and a decent job is hard to come by. I also know that sometimes taking whatever job comes available is only going to cause more problems. Still, you have to take responsability for the choices you make, and living in New Orleans comes with risks. That's not anyone pissing on the poor, that is just bad luck.

Ah yes, only the homeless, and positively *dozens* of them:



I'm so glad your view of people taking responSIBility for the choices they made is being borne out. Baaaad luck, eh? Sucks to be them omfglol

How convient to ignor that this is an on-going discussion...

Tell me one reasons, aside from medical necesity, that a person couldn't get out of New Orleans...

I already conceded that there were people who were unable to travel for medical and health related reasons. Try to keep up.

Of course, when you run out of logical topics for debate, feel free to hit up on my learning disability and point out the spelling errors. That will always win in an internet arguement. Eventualy, no one will try to talk to you any longer.