Political Punch
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper
Jake Tapper is ABC News' Senior White House Correspondent based in the network's Washington bureau. He writes about politics and popular culture and covers a range of national stories.
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DEATH & TAXES
June 08, 2006 9:19 AM
Today at the Senate -- a pivotal vote that could put repealing the estate tax on the Senate's immediate agenda.
I may be working today on a spot about this "death tax," as opponents call it...
What's this debate about? For liberals such as Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., it comes down to this: "First of all, let's call this trillion-dollar giveaway what it is - the Paris Hilton Tax Break. It's about giving billions of dollars to billionaire heirs and heiresses at a time when American taxpayers just can't afford it."
A radio ad featuring a faux-Paris can be heard here.
This morning we interviewed someone who disagrees -- Frank Blethen, the publisher of the Seattle Times and one of the wealthy families identified in a Public Citizen report as SPENDING MILLIONS TO SAVE BILLIONS in their own inheritances. (Also included -- the Mars family, the Waltons, the Gallos, the Nordstroms, the Coxes, the Kochs, etc etc).
Blethen's argument is that the tax forces families to sell their businesses to large conglomerates, and that the $2 million in assets that get taxed at such a high rate is not a huge amount of money since it's not liquid cash. He disputes the facts and figures in the PUBLIC CITIZEN study, but his larger point for the public is that this tax is bad for jobs and small businesses...
Some ads from that side of the debate including one that features some Democratic vultures
and a not-so-veiled threat aimed at Sen. John McCain, R-Az
But right now - 9:05 am -- all the buzz is Zarqawi-related (undestandably), so we'll see if we can get this on air.....
More later, including on the spot we did for World News Tonight last evening about Ann Coulter...(we had another one for Good Morning America lined up, but that pinpoint bomb that killed the terrorist leader blew that off the show as well)....
jt
June 8, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (4)
Glad to see that the movement to kill the inheritance tax was soundly defeated in the Senate. Are the Republicans trying to usher in a peculiar new "welfare state" of their own for their friends and contributors?
Posted by: chuck | Jun 9, 2006 8:51:32 AM
Mr. Gates, send YOUR money to Washington and keep YOUR fingers off of MY money. Same to everyone else.
Posted by: fred | Jun 9, 2006 8:51:21 AM
If these unfortunate wealthy families have to risk selling their assets to large conglomerates... too bad-- then so be it. Oh, yeah I feel so awful about those poor Waltons. Then why is Bill Gates father campaigning actively in favor of NOT repealing the estate tax?
Posted by: Nancy | Jun 8, 2006 5:42:28 PM
the money does not belong to the tax man, the politicians, society, or the government. they ain't entitled to other people's money.
Posted by: fred | Jun 8, 2006 2:33:05 PM
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