On the same day that Britney was shaving her head, a guy I know who works in the office of 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.
Not only does it make many of Bush's tax cuts permanent, but it envisions a complete repeal of the Estate Tax, which mainly affects only those who are in the top two-tenths of the top one percent of the richest people in this country.
The proposed savings from the cuts over the next decade are about $442 billion, or just slightly less than the amount of the annual defense budget (minus Iraq war expenses). But what's interesting about these cuts are how Bush plans to pay for them.
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 If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the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.
Appalling? Yes.Does this make it clear who the Bush Administration cares about?
I know we worship money in America, but do the People really need to make this kind of blood sacrifice on the altar of the rich? Anybody who tries to tell you that there isnt a full-out assault by the rich on ordinary Americans is simply naive, stupid, asleep or some rich person's lapdog.
Read the full article here.
3 comments:
i am in agreement with you for sure!!!!
They should tax the hell out of the successful. How can the government expect the rest of us to be successful? Everyone who has no desire to be successful and has absolutly no ambition at all should be behind this! The new government has increaed taxes by the largest margine ever, and we should all back that. It is obvious that we arent smart enough to spend our own money we should give it to the government in taxes to spend it for us. I hate being so ndamn stupic but then again I did vote for a change in Washington. I guess I deserve to pay in more in taxes so the govrenment can take care of me. I know that not one smart, educated person voted the same way I did but they chose the Dems and as a teacher I had no choice but to vote the line. Great post, I sure hope they take care of us.
js
yes you do need to suck wind little people. you are not worthy of the finer things in life, else you would have them. good things come to those who have earned them by birthright. you want a better deal in life, then make sure you fall out of the right loins. esadmf
But how much does Britney's hair stylist get?
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