A Stealth Attempted Robbery

    The superwealthy are at it again--lead by those leading lights at the Wal-Mart family. They are trying to effectively rob every one of us of the chance to have decent housing, healthcare, parks...you name it, all the things the government makes possible because we can't pay for that stuff on our own. Of course, the superwealthy can buy all that stuff so why should they care if they drain our pockets of tens of billions of dollars.

    Ah, how you might ask? We've talked alot here about the fight to eliminate the estate tax--that tax that heirs pay when an estate lands in their hands. As I pointed out many months ago, some conservatives, acting as a front for the superrich, have tried to frame the tax as something hurting small farmers and a whole lot of unfortunate Americans. Well, nonsense--it's a tax that hits such a small number of people (3,500) that you could easily fit them into Madison Square Garden during a Knicks game and still have seats leftover for any fan crazy enough to want to watch such a woeful team.

    Thanks to the fine folks at Public Citizen and United for A Fair Economy we now learn that 18 families of the superwealthy have been secretly financing the campaign to eliminate the estate tax:

Members of a handful of super-wealthy families have quietly helped finance and coordinate a massive campaign to repeal the estate tax.

These families – the members of which own the first and third largest privately held companies in the United States and hold about a 40 percent share in the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart – stand to save a whopping $71.6 billion if their bid succeeds.

They have relied on their fortunes, the resources of their companies and their business connections to marshal a massive anti-estate tax juggernaut that has reported nearly a half-billion dollars in lobbying expenditures ($490.3 million) since 1998.

The families also have helped finance outside groups that have spent millions on fear-mongering ad campaigns intended to sway public opinion against the estate tax. These ads have shamelessly retailed myths that the estate tax is responsible for wrecking small businesses and family farms, and that regular Americans should fear a crushing tax bill when their loved ones die.

    So, think about this: every time you walk into a Wal-Mart, you're giving a few more bucks to the Walton family to finance a campaign to undercut the ability of some person getting affordable housing or some young person getting a government-backed scholarship for college because, ultimately, the tens of billions of dollars the superwealthy pocket because of their insatiable greed will be money we don't have to ensure a decent society.

    You can read the rest of this fascinating, and troubling, report here.

Comments

[Robin O. Hunter]

It's now five days after this report was released and it's almost as if never was. The mainstream media aren't touching it. Go to Google or Yahoo News and search for the report and find just 18 or 19 hits. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer did a story mainly because the owner of the Seattle Times is one of the 18 families bankrolling this giant con job. The Washington Post's only reference I could find was a mention posted on their blog and a columnist at the New York Times gave it a couple paragraphs.

I applaud the efforts of Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy to expose this sham. Perhaps they should now turn their attention to finding out why this isn't news for the mainstream media and what threats might have been made against news organizations to get this important story suppressed.

It evidently matters not to the congressional whores bent on repealing the so-called "death tax" that this report exists. A story today on www.channelnewsasia.com on this topic quotes Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) as saying the inheritance tax is "detrimental to our economy, as it forces businesses to have to pay taxes to the government rather than investing in business growth. Even worse, many businesses are forced to sell off the business to pay for the resulting death taxes."

I suppose in his mind corporations really are businesses that directly have to pay inheritance taxes. There are more than 5 million businesses in the US and when he says "many businesses," I sort of imagine that might be 100,000 businesses, or at least 10,000. I'd challenge Senator Kyl to produce a list of 100 businesses that have been "forced to sell off the business to pay for the resulting death taxes."

[D Flinchum]

Having a handful of wealthy individuals and/or organizations front for a supposedly "oppressed" group is nothing new. One of the "joys" of hitting 55 or so is getting mail solicitations from groups claiming to represent "seniors" and wanting you to join up with a small dues check but mainly to sign petitions or send cards or letters to Congress. The point is to make it look as if all of these "seniors" are really, really, really wanting something or other that most seniors want no part of.

[Cherie Thomas-Wood]

Whatever happened to the Gray/Grey Panthers from years ago? I remember they had a strong voice for us seniors! I belong to a couple of Unions who fight hard for the American Worker but they can't do it alone...we seniors/retired people need to keep politically active. I've seen what happens to pensions and lack of healthcare and our elderly haveing to decide whether to eat or buy their medicine. My mother lives on Social Security and believe me it's not keeping up with inflation. Gas prices are sky-rocketing, which of course raises prices on all commodities, where and when will Social Security raise as well? Forget the Medicare Drug Act this is a disaster in the making.