Warren Buffet: Estate Tax Should Stay

This is not shaping up to be a good week for Republican ideology. First, General George W. Casey, the top American commander in Iraq, announced a plan to sharply cut the number of troops there and targeted a withdrawal of a large part of U.S. presence in Iraq by the end of 2007.

This all sounds an awful lot like the ideas Congressional Democrats have been speaking of and which the White House and the GOP have ridiculed as a "cut and run" strategy.

Ouch.

Then Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world, after Bill Gates, -- and also from my home state of Nebraska -- said today that Congress should retain the estate tax that Republicans seem so eager to get rid of to benefit people like, well, Buffet himself.

"I would hate to see the estate tax gutted," Buffett said at a New York City news conference in which he announced he was transferring a large part of his $44 billion fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"It's a very equitable tax," Buffett said. "It's in keeping with the idea of equality of opportunity in this country, not giving incredible head starts to certain people who were very selective about the womb from which they emerged."

Wow, that's exactly what Democrats said in the Senate a couple of weeks ago before Republican attempts to repeal the tax were soundly defeated.

Ouch again.

Tune in tomorrow when we'll see if Bill Gates announces that the Bush tax cuts do indeed only benefit people like him and promptly gives his entire 2005 tax rebate to the Democratic National Committee and Planned Parenthood.

Update: Apparently, Bill Gates, the richest man in the world and his father also believe GOP attempts to gut the estate tax are bogus. Thankya, DUer boloboffin!

You can reach Bob Geiger at geiger.bob@gmail.com and read more from him at Democrats.com.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2003-01-12-gates_x.htm

As does Bill.

Joe Six Pack, somewhere in Topeka, Kansas, who brings home $20K/year, and owes $175K on a 3 BR home worth around $275,000.....thinks the Estate Tax should be eliminated, and that the repubs are fighting for him and his family.

Sad and ironic.

:wtf: