Sep 4th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
The Case for the Estate Tax
I wonder just how dumb Robert Woods Johnson IV, “the billionaire heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and owner of the New York Jets,” thinks we are:
Like other major donors, Mr. Johnson has traveled with Mr. McCain on the campaign trail. Mr. McCain also calls him on occasion to thank him. But Mr. Johnson downplays the access he has, saying he is no different from anyone else.
“You can call the senator too,” Mr. Johnson said.
Now to be sure, you could call John McCain or Barack Obama or any other Senator you like. But they won’t call you back. This isn’t rocket science.
29 Responses to “The Case for the Estate Tax”
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September 4th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
For you to point out this sort of thing is “class war”. For you to ignore it isn’t.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
OT: Every time the NPR announcer says a program is “sponsored by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation,” I inwardly snicker, Beavis-and-Butthead-style.
It’s just a shame his name wasn’t Richard.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
It’s funny. I was thinking this morning that if I were Team Sedona, I’d Sister Souljah the Republicans tonight on the estate tax. If he did that, he’d win the election for sure, no?
“Almost every American family needs lower taxes. But for my family and Cindy’s…”
September 4th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
How dumb? Complete and utter morons, who think there is much class mobility up to his pay grade, in reality about the same odds as your kid making a career as a player in MLB/NBA/NFL.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
But they won’t call you back.
One of the things that community organizers do is put together a strong enough coalition of voters that politicians will return their phone calls. And here we see the source of Giulani’s, Palin’s, and McCain’s attacks on Obama’s community organizing background but never criticize RWJ’s activism: he committed the sin of getting politicians to do the bidding of voters who didn’t have the good taste to be rich.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Interesting aside about senatorial access. When we were impoverished (on welfare, etc.) in the recession 1980s, my mother wrote to various senators and representatives, including both of our own, about our problems. The responses were highly revealing; we got back unhelpful (to say the least) form letters from our own two Republican senators, and a very nice, personal letter from Ted Kennedy, although that was presumably written by his staff (at least in the details).
So much for your “Northeastern elites” and your Republicans “of the people.”
Access matters. The access McCain has given to the media has given him a powerful advantage; the access Kennedy gave to a woman on welfare in another state has done a great deal to create a firmly liberal family.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
We’ve lived through three days of the Republican Convention now, and you think it’s just R.W. Johnson who thinks we’re dumb?
September 4th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I’m not really sure that’s a good case for the Estate Tax. Here’s a better one: when a person dies, you get to play an accounting trick that I call “basis laundering.” When you inherit a stock, you inherit it at the basis when the person died, not when they actually purchased the stock. I own a lot of Exxon Mobile stock, and none of it has ever been bought or sold. They are my grandfather’s stock options from Standard Oil. As you might imagine, they have appreciated quite a bit since they were granted. But nobody has ever paid any taxes on that appreciation, despite multiple people owning the stock. The purpose of the Estate Tax is to recoup these lost capital gains taxes that are normally laundered through death. And you don’t even need to pay the Estate Tax either, because you can hide money in foreign accounts and precious metals. Here’s a hint: whatever is in a safe deposit box will go through probate. But if it happens to leave that box just before a person dies, than nobody knows what it is. It just goes to another box. And the probate court just sees the deed to the house, which they already knew about.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Glendower:
I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur:
Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?
Glendower:
Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command
The devil
Hotspur:
And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil—
By telling the truth. Tell truth and shame the devil.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
It’s funny. I was thinking this morning that if I were Team Sedona, I’d Sister Souljah the Republicans tonight on the estate tax. If he did that, he’d win the election for sure, no?
Really Petey, this is just getting embarrassing.
Yes, if McCain were to embrace a plank of the Democratic party – particularly on economic issues – he would stand to gain a lot of independents. This is assuming, of course, that he doesn’t need Republican votes to win. The party that loves Hukabees social positions but rejected him because he wasn’t a sufficiently comitted economic royalist isn’t going to forgive McCain for Sister-Soulahing them on the estate tax at their own convention.
You sound like some high-Broderist twit fantasizing about a Dem nominee repudiating social security at the DNC.
September 4th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
“The party that loves Hukabees social positions but rejected him because he wasn’t a sufficiently comitted economic royalist isn’t going to forgive McCain for Sister-Soulahing them on the estate tax at their own convention.”
He could get away with it, if he wanted to.
The GOP in ‘08 is much like the Dems in ‘92. They’re weak and they know it.
“You sound like some high-Broderist twit fantasizing about a Dem nominee repudiating social security at the DNC.”
No doubt.
But if McCain really wants the WH, he’s going to have to conspicuously break with his party in some small but highly visible way. And this way has the additional merit of helping prevent future outbreaks of Housegate.
So far, Team Sedona has been doing everything I’d have done were I in their shoes, including things I didn’t think they had the balls for, like picking a chick for Veep. Let’s see if they keep being uncommonly smart tonight.
September 4th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I gotta second WillieStyle. Protecting entrenched wealth is the primary purpose of the Republican party. The interests of entrenched wealth even trump corporate interests and the interests of people who earn a lot of money. Republicans in favor of the estate tax are like vegetarian tigers.
September 4th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
So far, Team Sedona has been doing everything I’d have done were I in their shoes, including things I didn’t think they had the balls for, like picking a chick for Veep. Let’s see if they keep being uncommonly smart tonight.
Oh, Petey… surely you understand that a political team can’t simultaneously do “everything that [you'd] have done were [you] in their shoes” and be “uncommonly smart.”
Maybe President Edwards will explain this to you some day.
September 4th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
TFSB.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Speaking of the estate tax, you might find this report on how just 18 super wealthy families conspired to get it repealed.
http://www.citizen.org/documents/EstateTaxFinal.pdf
The overlap with McCain backers should tell you something.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
repealing the estate tax would be a case of throwing tofu to to the base–ain’t gonna happen!
September 4th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
F Scott Fitzgerald: The rich are different from you and me
Hemingway: Yes, they have more money.
Petey: you want a curveball? One-term pledge. Let the Base ride the Mayor Mooseburger wave.
September 4th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Surely McCain will come out for single payer healthcare and raising upper tax rates on the wealthiest 1/2% back up to 70%. That would shock ‘em, and be totally unexpected.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Not that I need another reason to hate the Garish Green & White, but as a (long suffering) Dolphin Fan, thnx for giving me another excuse for wishing the Jets the worst this Sunday–not that Huizenga is any better (new half owner Steve Ross, I don’t know his politics, but Wayne H is a plutocrat fer sher)
September 4th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
One possibility is that Robert W. Johnson actually thinks that McCain would also be paying attention to him if he were poor — that it’s his charm, insightfulness, and wisdom that gets him to listen to him. After all, it’s probable that McCain never actually told him “I wouldn’t give a crap about you if you weren’t a billionaire.” In that case, the question becomes how dumb he is, not how dumb he thinks we are. Is he, like George W. Bush, a man who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple?
P.S.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:26 am
“Surely McCain will come out for single payer healthcare and raising upper tax rates on the wealthiest 1/2% back up to 70%. That would shock ‘em, and be totally unexpected.”
It turned out that wage insurance was his economic pivot to the left. But it was far too subtle to get the impact they needed.
I don’t think McCain did what he needed to do tonight.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Re estate tax
The incredible part of the argument about the estate tax and the emotions it seems to inspire is that it currently only affects about 2% of the population (i.e. an estate of over 2 million dollars).
September 5th, 2008 at 10:53 am
The Working Group on Extreme Inequality and United for a Fair Economy is pushing a new piece of legislation that would keep the estate tax at the $2 million / $4 million (per spouse) level, with a progressive rate structure. Jim McDermott (WA) has introduced The Sensible Estate Tax Act. Please get in touch if you are interested in endorsing or highlighting our bill. Find out more here: http://extremeinequality.org/?page_id=12. Thank you.
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