Death Tax

The fact is that taxes take a slice any time money changes hands, but the phrase "Death Tax" was pre-tested for its capacity to provoke rage in those who don't know any better... Most of the time you don't have Columbia University economist Jefferey Sachs to correct the distortion when Joe Scarborough slips from political analyst to Republican activist with talking points about families in Farmville.

“We can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few or we can have democracy,
but we can’t have both.”
-- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (1856- 1941)

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A Powerful Progressive Proponent

As the House of Representatives questions inclusion of estate taxes in the Obama/McConnell compromise, a look at its history, dating back to when progressives were Republicans... With Michael Graetz, co-author of the book Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight Over Taxing Inherited Wealth.

A Stand Against Inherited Oligarchy Audio Embed: Morning Edition 12/15/10, Host: Don Gonyea.

The old saying goes, "The only two certainties in life are death and taxes." So it might have been inevitable that they'd meet.

Ezra Klein, An Estate Tax Primer -- Washington Post, 12/15/10:

In a report called "Spending Millions to Save Billions," Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy estimated that a handful of the country's richest families had spent more than $400 million lobbying for the tax's repeal -- and if they were successful, they stood to save more than $70 billion.