As some of you know, I consider myself to be an amateur rap artist. I rarely get political in my music, because I do that more so for fun and just to get my more “aggressive” thoughts out. Anyways, I have a new song out featuring Mr. King Jookyhimself, Mike Luke AKA DOPEHEAD, from my old neighborhood, the Dexter-Linwood Area (DLA) of Detroit’s west side. Song is called So Much Style, and it’s on YouTube here if you’d like to listen!
Anyways, on to what you’re here for.
According to The Hill, the republicans just last week have introduced a bill to completely eliminate the “Estate Tax”. Naomi Jagoda writes:
“In December 2017 did not repeal the estate tax but it doubled the amount that will be exempt from the tax. In 2019, the exemption amount for an individual is $11.4 million. The increase in the estate tax exemption amounts expires after 2025.
The Senate Republicans argued that repealing the estate tax, which they often call the "death tax," would be beneficial to owners of small businesses and family farms.
“Often times, family-owned farms and ranches bear the brunt of this tax, which threatens families’ agricultural legacies and makes it difficult and costly to pass these businesses down to future generations," Thune said in a news release. "This way of life is integral to so many South Dakota families, which is why I remain committed to removing roadblocks for these family businesses, and we can start by repealing the death tax once and for all.”
Grassley said that "the estate tax doesn’t serve any purpose except forcing family farms and family-run businesses to waste precious capital on costly tax planning and in too many cases, paying taxes on income or property that have already been taxed once."
But the bill is sure to be opposed by many Democrats, who argue that repealing the estate tax would help the rich and that very few taxpayers were subject to the tax even before the GOP tax law.”
Basically, the republicans are saying that rich dead people need to be able to pass ALL of their wealth down to their kids, and that taxing any of it is somehow immoral. But doesn’t that mean then that you don’t really believe in the whole “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality? I mean, think about it. The main argument the right wing likes to use against government programs that provide services to those in need (welfare) have a negative effect on society because it encourages laziness and people won’t want to work if they get assistance from the government. Of course that isn’t true (as of 2016, 7.6 Million Americans were considered “working poor”, meaning they have a full time job and still don’t make a living wage), but let’s give them that argument just for a moment.
If the argument is that giving people assistance creates laziness and stifles the work ethic, then how does that same logic not apply to the children of rich people? I mean, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Donald Trump (need I go on?) What hard work did any of them do to create the current wealth they enjoy so much? These people had incredible head starts that they were able to maintain and grow (Kim and Paris), or ruined on 6 different occasions that required sneaky tricks to not lose everything (President Human Waste Basket). You wanna talk about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps? Jay-Z. 50 Cent. These are people who truly “got it out the mud”. And guess what? When Jay-Z dies, I don’t want him to be able to give HALF A BILLION DOLLARS to Blue Ivy. Even they taxed Jay Z’s net worth at 90%, (for easy math we’ll say he’s a billionaire), that would leave 100 Million dollars behind for Blue Ivy. How can anyone on earth say this is unreasonable?
The republicans apparently. Good thing we have folks like Bernie Sanders still proposing common sense policies, like lowering the threshold for the estate tax, which would ultimately bring in $315 Billion over the next decade, and $2.2 Trillion when every billionaire in the USA passes away under his plan, according to Splinter.
The older I get, the more I see why my parents always said “Under republicans, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”
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