?Do we run the country for the people, or do we run it for the nameless faceless banks or international corporations?? --Lou DobbsFormer Virginia governor and current U.S. Senator George Allen is a pathetic representative of our state and an utterly incompetent legislator. Now, Allen is busy supporting GOP efforts to repeal the estate tax, even though only the richest 18,800 Americans out of nearly 300 million are assessed the estate tax at the current cutoff of $1.5 million. To line the pockets of those well-to-do folks even further, a new House measure would cost our government an enormous $745 billion from 2012 to 2021, plunging us further into debt and jeopardizing Social Security, Medicare, Homeland Security, and much more.
What's so ridiculous about all this is that the current effective estate tax rate is only 18.8%, not 47% as the GOP claims. This lower effective rate is because the estate tax is levied only on the amount of estate above the exemption, currently being raised to $3.5 million. At that level, only 50 - FIFTY! - family farms and businesses in the entire country (perhaps 1 or 2 in Virginia?) are estimated to be subject to the estate tax. These are are the wealthiest of the wealthy. And just to set the record straight: family farms are NEVER, EVER TAKEN under the estate tax! Farms are only assessed a tax when they are enormously wealthy.
Another point: the GOP says the estate tax represents double taxation but that's not true. In fact, much of the wealth transferred after death has NEVER been taxed, not even once, since most of the estates are in stocks, business assets, and long-held property. Taxes are not assessed until such assets are sold.
??a man of great wealth owes a particular obligation to the state because he derives special advantage from the mere existence of government.? --Teddy Roosevelt, REPUBLICAN president during whose term the estate tax was implemented
The former Republican Governor of Virginia, Jim Gilmore, left Virginia?s budget in shambles that the Mark Warner-Tim Kaine team had to fix. Fortunately, they did so successfully, turning a huge deficit into a $544 million surplus in fiscal 2005. Thanks to Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, Virginia now has a balanced budget so that the state can follow through on VDOT projects, hire law enforcement officers, teachers, and public works employees.
Meanwhile, Jerry Kilgore is running on the standard GOP platform to repeal the estate tax, hurting the common good while super-rich families get to keep more of their fortunes. So that nobody confuses the issue, here it is in a nutshell: Kaine supports public education, roads, health services, and infrastructure; Kilgore supports giving the a small handful of Virginians another huge tax break that we can't afford.