Friday, June 02, 2006

Taxing the Dead to Death

As I've mentioned before, I love getting e-mail from Sojourners. It's like having a conversation with a very young child, who in learning to speak, makes some interesting nonsense along the way. This issue was the Estate Tax, and how those mean old republicans want to make it go away. Jim Wallis himself is up on the soapbox this time.

let's call it a "common good tax" - is focused where it was intended, on those who have benefited so much from the opportunities of America. In a very real sense, the estate tax is a repayment for the public services and infrastructure that enable wealth creation - our transportation system of highways, bridges, and airports; our legal and educational systems; and many other investments we make in our society.


Earth to Jim, Earth to Jim, that's why we have several taxes ALREADY IN PLACE to handle those issues:

Federal Income Tax
Capital Gains Tax
State Income Tax
Property Tax
Federal Gasoline Tax
Sales Tax (most states)
Motor Vehicle Tax (as if standing in line at the DMV wasn't taxing enough)
Telecommunications Fees (Universal Service Fund)

It is only right that having benefited so much from the opportunities of America, the wealthiest should be obligated to return some of their good fortune to expand the opportunities of other Americans..


If you look at the list of taxes above, you'll see that those with the most are already paying more than most. What Democrats want is a chance to tax someone's income and wealth twice, maybe even three or four times, from generation to generation.

Is this the America that we want? One whose top policy priority is to make the rich richer while abandoning the most needed efforts to reduce poverty and protect the common good?

Enough with the class-struggle rhetoric. It's a shame that Sojourners has become a shill for Tax-N-Spend Democrats, as all this talk about faith ends up sounding hollow when it's just being used to justify an attempt at socialism.

2 comments:

The Unseen One said...

Amen, St. Jimbob.
Also, ever notice that every time the left tries to "Punish the rich", it is the up-and-coming people that are working to become wealthy who get the shaft while the leisure class and old money are completely protected?

Example: John Kerry's family in 2003 paid only 12% federal income tax. That is a lower percentage than I payed.

I may be fed up with a lot of the inaction of the Republicans in office, but I'm not willing ot stay home on election day in protest only to allow some pro-murder pro-legalized-robery (in favor of increasing taxes) Democrat to get in office.

Pauli said...

I get email from the Sojo clowns too, but I never remember signing up. It is good for a laugh though and I'm willing to bet, though not my family inheritance, that Wallis, Campolo and these cats are sitting on heaps of cash while they wag their fingers at those "horrible rich people out there". Tedious.