Maybe We Deserve to be Ripped Off by Bush's Billionaires!

[Turn CO Blue]

This is an article about how the elimination of the Estate Tax translates into budget cuts and exactly who (what richie-rich families) are benefiting!

Please kick this up!

Maybe We Deserve to Be Ripped Off By Bush's Billionaires
<http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/48278>
By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com

snippet~

Senator Bernie Sanders sent me an email. He was trying very hard to get news organizations interested in some research his office had done about George Bush's proposed 2008 budget, which was unveiled two weeks ago and received relatively little press, mainly because of the controversy over the Iraq war resolution. All the same, the Bush budget is an amazing document. It would be hard to imagine a document that more clearly articulates the priorities of our current political elite.

snippet~

Sanders's office came up with some interesting numbers here. If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.

The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion.

Or how about this: if the Estate Tax goes, the heirs to the Mars candy corporation -- some of the world's evilest scumbags, incidentally, routinely ripped by human rights organizations for trafficking in child labor to work cocoa farms in places like Cote D'Ivoire -- if the estate tax goes, those assholes will receive about $11.7 billion in tax breaks. That's more than three times the amount Bush wants to cut from the VA budget ($3.4 billion) over the same time period.

Some other notable estimate estate tax breaks, versus corresponding cuts:


Cox family (Cox cable TV) receives $9.7 billion tax break while education would get $1.5 billion in cuts

Nordstrom family (Nordstrom dept. stores) receives $826.5 million tax break while Community Service Block Grants would be eliminated, a $630 million cut

Ernest Gallo family (shitty wines) receives a $468.4 million cut while LIHEAP (heating oil to poor) would get a $420 million cut

And so on and so on. Sanders additionally pointed out that the family of former Exxon/Mobil CEO Lee Raymond, who received a $400 million retirement package, would receive about $164 million in tax breaks.

Compare that to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which Bush proposes be completely eliminated, at a savings of $108 million over ten years. The program sent one bag of groceries per month to 480,000 seniors, mothers and newborn children.

Somehow, to me, that's the worst one on the list.


--------

So HELP!
Does anyone have a copy of this email sent out by Bernie Sanders' office? I want to read the whole thing, but it's not on his Senate Web site - at least not that I can find.

Note: This story is also diaried on DKos at <http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/21/15727/0604>

The top 2/10ths of the top 1 percent have names!
by bobcn
Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 11:22:47 PM PST
Look what happens when the top 2/10ths of the top 1 percent have names! Now we not only know what money was cut from vital services, but we know who took it.

bobcn's diary :: ::
Maybe We Deserve to Be Ripped Off By Bush's Billionaires by Matt Taibbi is a must read.

[AzDar]

1. K &R n/t

[FormerDittoHead]

2. Oh MY! Isn't this CLASS WARFARE??? Shouldn't taxes be "FAIR" like a national sales tax?

I am so getting tired of all of this bullshit.

Support our troops.

Strong defense.

"Culture War".

It all has come down to the same god-damned thing, the same thing THEY'VE wanted all along..

When will we WAKE THE HELL UP and see what's REALLY GOING ON in this country...

We've been sold out and mortgaged, and WE have to make the payments....

I'm SO much looking forward to the next twenty years...

[Karenina]

12. I'm SO much looking forward to the next twenty years...

NOT.

[Truthseeker013]

3. Maybe We Deserve to be Ripped Off by Bush's Billionaires!

Those of us who knew and were willing to speak out against it were branded everything from Commies to things I can't post, in the interest of family. As much as I worry about the present-day state of affairs, I worry more about what future generations, looking back at this shambles, will think of us. As long as those of us who disagree post here, there's a permanent record of our stances. Unless Mister Bush manages to get that nukular war with North Korea and Iran kick-started fast...

[sinkingfeeling]

4. No, but here's a link to Bernie's speech on the subject.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/press/record.cfm?id=269284

"Mr. President: Included in the President's budget, amazingly, is the complete repeal of the Estate Tax - which would take effect at the end of 2010. As you know, the repeal of the complete real of this tax would benefit would benefit only the top 2/10ths of one percent. Let me repeat that. The complete repeal of the Estate Tax, based on the changes and increased exemptions that Congress has provided in recent years, would benefit the wealthiest 2/10ths of one percent of the American public - families that are all millionaires or billionaires. In other words, 99.8 percent of Americans would not benefit from the complete repeal of the Estate Tax as proposed by the President.


According to the President's budget this action, the complete repeal of the Estate Tax, would reduce receipts by more than $91 billion over the next five years and more than $442 billion over the next decade. But the long-term damage to our treasury is even worse. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, repealing the estate tax would cost over one trillion dollars from 2012 to 2021."

Edited to add quote.

[90-percent]

5. future generations

Future Generations and our very own children will consider the lot of us to be lower than ant shit.

-85% jimmy

[Turn CO Blue]

6. Gee thanks! I will read in its entirety. n/t

[glitch]

7. K & R for sweet rant. Thank their creators (and Al Gore) for the news filter sites like Alternet

and Common Dreams. I completely missed the Britney Spears shaved head flurry because I don't even go to newspapers or tv for real information anymore, you have to wade through too much garbage to get even the tiniest morsel. And far more often than not they don't even provide that. Pfooey.

[HamdenRice]

8. Well, wadya want? Medicaid or a $30 billion gift to the Walmart family?

Isn't it obvious that it is more important to give the Walton's $30 billion than to fully fund Medicaid? If we fund the gift to the Waltons, doesn't that trickle down? Doesn't that make Americans in average lots richer?

Where are your priorities? What are ya, some kind of commie?

:sarcasm:

[Greyhound]

9. Another supporter here, shouting in the wilderness.

The sheep are thoroughly indoctrinated, they believe, to the very core of their beings, that somehow, someday, they will get into the club, and therefore will hear no argument for destroying the club. This sad condition can only exist because they don't even know what the club is, let alone, what is required for admission to it.

"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves." - Howard Zinn
:kick: & R

[Joe Fields]

10. But don't you know we must all know about Brittney and Anna Nicole?

[hashibabba]

11. Bush should be...

Oh, Hi Agent Mike! :hi:

I was outraged when I saw the 2008 budget. There are many people who have relatives who are poor and suffering. Or who are elderly, disabled, children, college students, etc. etc. So why don't more people speak out about this problem?

Bush says he can get away with these cuts without Congress. Is that true? If Agent Mike wasn't here, I'd...I'd... well, you know.

Make sure you all write and call your congressmen about this. I already have. I haven't gotten any answers because they've been out this week, but I expect some answers next week.