Good idea. But check this out.

That oh so important estate tax. So unfair to small businesses and family farms, right?

* The new Thomas estate tax bill (H.R. 5638) will cost the American people $762 billion, in just the first 10 years (2012 to 2021) - nearly as much as full repeal. [CBPP, 6/20/06] Permanent repeal of the estate tax would cost the American people nearly $1 trillion. [CBPP, 4/28/06]

* Less than 1 percent of estates will pay taxes in 2006 under this year's exemption and only 7,500 nationwide will pay estate tax, under the $3.5 million exemption which will take effect in 2009. [Center for American Progress, 5/17/06; Joint Committee on Taxation, Memo to the Ways and Means Staff, 10/18/04]

* President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and the Cabinet stand to gain between $91 million and $344 million if the estate tax is permanently repealed. The current CEOs of the five largest U.S. oil companies and Lee Raymond, the former CEO of Exxon Mobil, would likely receive a windfall of up to $211 million, with Raymond himself potentially receiving a tax break worth more than $160 million. [House Government Reform, 5/30/06]

* If the estate tax is repealed, 830 of the wealthiest estates in the country would split an estimated $14 billion in tax breaks each year, or $16 million per estate. [Center for American Progress, 5/17/06]

* Almost no working farmers ever pay the estate tax. Under the $3.5 million exemption to take effect in 2009, the number of family farms required to pay any taxes in 2000 would have been just 65, along with 94 small businesses. [Congressional Budget Office, 7/05]

* Democrats have supported providing immediate estate tax relief for 99.7 percent of estates, by raising the amount of the estates excluded from taxes to $6 million per couple and increasing this to $7 million by 2009. Not only did this provide relief for small business and family farmers, but it would not have heaped more debt onto our children and grandchildren -- costing less than $75 billion over 10 years. [H.R. 8, Vote 101, 4/13/05, 194-238]

* One prominent Iowa economist actually searched for families who had lost their farms to estate taxes, but failed to find a single one. When the New York Times sought to write a real-life feature about a farmer hit by the estate tax, the American Farm Bureau was unable to produce one farm that was lost because of estate taxes. [New York Times, 4/8/01]

Ah, yes . . . the little commies think they have some "right" to the after-tax accumulations of those who are smarter and harder-working than they.

No news there.

Minimum wage laws do absolutely nothing in times when labor is in short supply, such as now. However, when unemployment inevitably rises again, sharply higher minimum wages will restrict the number of entry-level jobs created. They essentially achieve nothing at all in economic terms, but that isn't the point, is it?

It's a way to appeal to the poor and stupid, and fool them {again} into thinking the Democrats are "on their side" or some other such nonsense.

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Well, having an enforceable minimum wage does two things that Republicans seem to like: set a wage that people can live off so that people won't feel like working is a step backward from welfare, and two it would prevent copmanies from abusing illegal immigrants to lower their wages and prevent them from pouring into the country.

Yeah, if you accumulate wealth which sits there making you richer we should definitely leave that there and make it up by taxing people making 60,000 or 100,000 or 200,000 a year. We certainly should not hope for our wealthiest and best off to contribute to our community except when they feel like it. The estate tax. Boo hoo. The government wants 45% of my 8,000,000 dollars and now I have no money left.

If you want lower taxes why don't you have your Republican leadership whittle that defense budget down. More than 50% of our budget is for defense, interest on previous defense spending, and veterans benefits. We certainly could not dominate the world with only a 400 billion a year in war and weapons, we need 6 or 7 hundred billion.

The inheritance tax is just plain unfair. It taxes wealth that has already taxed. The only way to put a fair spin on this is if you ASSUME that wealth belongs to the State and is loaned to us during our lives.

As far as finding a family farm lost due to the tax, what are you looking for exactly? What does a family farm lost to the tax look like? Does it wear a label? Keep in mind that if a family business is in the name of the heads of households, who then die, the tax is due and MUST be paid. If the surviving family members expect to keep the business the money to pay the tax comes from some other source (or a partial sale of assets) and is still a drag on the surviving business. This just isn't fair. It is NOT the government's money!

The hypocrisy of demanding an increase in the minimum wage AND supporting the importation of cheap labor from Mexico should be apparent. This is kind of like outsourcing jobs to foreign workers in our own country. Remember when the Republicans were condemned (wrongly) for encouraging domestic corporations to seek lower wage workers in other countries?

If you want higher minimum wages demand a limit on "guest workers" legal as well as illegal.

it is so sad to read a post that is so filled with greed. this whole idea that i earned it and its mine and the state cannot take any part of it no matter how much i have and the state is loaning you wealth is just pathetic.

really.

research shows that beyond an income of 75,000 a year, happiness does not appreciate considerably. but just because a few greedy yahoos think they have some right to horde wealth (which i must always remind them is MUCH easier to build once you have a little bit) which then hurts the overall economy because it is not invested in humanity in any way.

tell me all about how once we tax it too much people wont even work for it. people sure did not do any work when the upper rate was 39% under Clinton, did they? And historically, with the estate tax as high as it as been, people have not worked hard and our country and those poor rich people have suffered so horribly.

BTW, what does it look like? it looks like a journalist spent time trying to find ONE family farm that was lost and despite contacting probably dozens of Republicans who use that talking point, could not track down ONE. not ONE. surely, if it was a problem, someone's office must have a letter from at least one person. But no.

Your anti-tax mentality is a psychosis based on hatred of government and greed. get over it.

Pathetic is the robin hood complex that someone else has a right to take whatever is yours and spend it in whatever way they deem right. Taxes should be taken to support public needs not private concerns. Taxes should not be used as a social leveling device. Taxes should not be used as a bludgeon against the successful.

Finding a farm or other small business lost to the inheritance tax is not the easy task it may seem. What do you look for? Businesses and small farms rise and fall continuously. If one falls how do you attribute that failure/change of hands to the inheritance tax? If a farm is worth a million dollars and the principal owners die then half of the farm belongs to the government (under inheritance taxes) and if the children of those owners want to maintain the farm then SOMEBODY is going to pony up 500k to buy the farm back from the government that just appropriated half of it.

Quite frankly I don't give a polite damn what research shows about the relationship between happiness and money. If I work and earn it is my sweat and my wages, not the governments. This is not about encouraging labor with tax policy. This is not about greed, any more than the revolution was about greed. It's about what is right.

If you believe that the society has a right to demand equality of outcome then you are asking for a different society than the one we fostered in 1776. This is your right. You have no right to demand the moral high ground with socialistic rhetoric. It is not greedy to keep thieves at bay; even if they seek the authority of government and the haughty righteousness of a social engineer.

I am not seeking equality of outcome, only equality of opportunity as is best possible. No one wants to take 99.9% of the rich people's money and just give it away to the poor. I am talking about contributing to the greater good, which includes things like freeways, medical research, defense, social security, medicare. these are good things that make our society better than it would be without it, and they need funding.

If you had a referendum on these programs they would all pass with flying colors. And the most fair way to help pay for them is to tax huge tracts of wealth and everyone's income to do so. Part of the reason that Americans believe in the American dream is that we don't have a split society with 5% super rich and 95% in poverty. And that is because we have a democracy where people, originally and continually, say "hey, for the right to live here, to enjoy our way of life, and to gain profits off of the labor of others, you have to pay your fair share."

Taxes are an investment in our way of life, but for some reason the people who are enjoying our way of life the most are the most resistant to paying.

I hear Republicans bitch and moan about the left pandering to the poor, or taxing the rich too heavily, and what I never hear is a reasonable solution. What are your plans to help people escape the cycle of poverty? How do you suppose we will fund immensely popular community programs like Medicare, Defense? Where does the money come from?