Bill Gates, Sr: Tax My Estate, Please!

Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate will take up the issue of repealing the federal estate tax. From a fiscal point of view, abolishing the estate tax is shortsighted and reckless. Repealing the tax will cost $1 trillion in the coming decade. Only multimillionaires and billionaires pay it, so a repeal would constitute a giveaway to the rich.

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The principal backers of the repeal effort are some of our nation's wealthiest families. A new report reveals that 18 wealthy families spent several hundred million dollars on a campaign to abolish the tax. Today, someone needs to have at least $2 million inwealth as an individual or $4 million as acouple before they pay a penny of estate taxes. This is fewer than one in 370 estates in 2006.

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It is appalling that there are people with estates valued at more than $50 million or $100 million or $1 billion who are resentful at being able to pass on only 65% or 75% of their wealth to their heirs. There is no great societal goal served by massive amounts of inherited wealth.

The wealthy opponents to the estate tax show their hands when they refuse to discuss any of the reasonable compromise measures. They don't want to talk about improvements in the law. They just want to repeal it.

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The estate tax is a fair way for those of us who have prospered in this society to pay back the country that's made it possible for us to thrive.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/424197p-357925c.html

son.

Senior Gates is a good man.

Bill Gates, Jr. is the greatest philanthropist in the history of the world, and plans to give away nearly ALL of his billions before he dies. You might not like his business practices or his software, but I don't think he's personally greedy.

for I don't know how many years until he got called on it. He was against benefits for same-sex partners until that caused a ruckus. He's a philanthropist as long as it comes off his taxes. But he won't have to do that anymore, will he?

He bets against the American dollar by investing heavily in foreign currencies, which is bullshit. Bill Gates is not the best thing since white bread no matter how much you'd like to believe he is.

for the link, Bill Gates Sr. has been a dedicated supporter of the estate tax. I posted this thread in a Gen Discussion section on the estate tax,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1373848&mesg_id=1373848

This from a guy who has an army of lawyers to make sure that his estate will slide through a million loop holes.

It's just the same old mantra: "Don't tax you, and don't tax me; tax that guy behind the tree."