Such a Kidder

From the ever-reliable pages of the local fishwrap kool-aid dispenser comes this delusional gem:

"Eleven years ago my father died at the age of 92 after a lifetime of hard work as a house painter. But through savings and investments he accumulated an estate just a little under the amount we would have had to pay death taxes on, thank God."

Allow me to translate: "Daddy and mommy worked their asses off for almost a freakin' century and they still didn't develop enough upward mobility for estate taxes to affect them."

The estate tax doesn't hurt anybody. It causes no pain. Trauma causes pain. Disease causes pain. Hunger and poverty cause pain. Having $600K left over after Uncle Bush takes his slice does not cause anyone any pain.

So please stop calling the taxation of the very rich "hurtful." It's an abuse of language.

Some economic demographic information for Arizona can be found by clicking on the portion of text I have so consid(a href)erately highlighted.

Hey, if I can do it, you can too.

The estate tax might affect about 2% of the households in the entire state, and chances are it's far fewer than that. Probably more like 0.3%.

"About 99.7 percent of Americans are not rich enough to be affected by the estate tax. The existing exemptions allow their heirs to get whatever is left to them without paying any taxes. But that other 0.3 percent increasingly find themselves in the role of "the deciders."


The repeal of the estate tax is not about the middle class, for whom shrinkage is a much greater problem. The estate tax is not hurtul to anyone. The estate tax affects a tiny fraction of a minority of the children of the very richest people.

The repeal of the estate tax is class warfare.

Say it again, Molly:

"If Mr. Bush has his way, we are going to fight an unprovoked war with Iraq without the financial aid of any allies. The health care system is falling apart in front of our eyes, schoolteachers should be paid at least twice what they make now, lack of low-income housing is making life hell for the working class and now the right wing wants to cut taxes for the rich yet again?

That's class warfare."

Whose side are you on? Your own?