estate tax

Many Republicans want to abolish the estate tax, or the "death tax" as they call it to make it sound scary. In support of their position, they tend to argue that the American people are on their side. I think that the Democrats should give the Republicans the benefit of the doubt and propose that we have a nationwide vote on the issue. The important caveat is that since the average American does not have time to research the issue, the vote would consist of answering 2 questions that effectively explain what the death tax is in simple language. I am so confident that the Republicans are wrong in claiming that the American people are on their side on this issue, I would propose that the American people should only have to vote the Republican way ("No" on this issue, as will be shown) on one of two questions for the Republicans to get their way and the death tax to be repealed. Here are the two questions:

Do you think that it is better to tax the wealthy than the poor and the middle class?

Do you think that is better to tax dead people than living people?

(The wordings of the questions could be reversed for some people so as to eliminate the bias of preferring to answer no rather than yes, or vice versa.)

If at least 50% of the American people answer no to either of these questions, the estate tax will be abolished.



Ok, I know what you're thinking...I characterized the estate tax unfairly. I implied that the estate tax only applies to wealthy people when in fact 2.3% of those the estate tax applies to have assets worth a measley $750,000 or less excluding the value of the estate. And in fact, the estate tax is a horrible scourge on those with estates worth $1.5 million or more as it taxes those in the $1.5-2 million range at a draconian 1.6%.

I apologize for my misrepresentations. Working men of all countries unite to abolish the estate tax. You have nothing to lose but the 4th Porsch of the asshole down the street.



-Larry