The Bush estate tax cuts are atrocious, but I am not willing to accept the
Astor story as presented. That the son cut her staff from six nurses to three,
and her friends oppose the grandson's effort to intervene, tells me that this is
a family issue with two sides to the story. The bigger story is the millions of
dollars that Bush himself will save when his parents die, and the millions he
receives from campaign contributors to eliminate taxes for the wealthy.
BUSH'S HEIR CUT: AWARDS TAX BREAK TO SON OF
AN ASTOR
by Greg
Palast
For The Guardian, Comment Is Free
Monday, July
31, 2006
While others merely gossiped about this tragedy of dogs and
cosmetics, George Bush acted. In a deft maneuver at the end of last week,
Bush rammed through Congress a massive reduction in the inheritance tax.
As a result of the tax change engineered by the White House, Marshall stands to
save $9 million on the $45 million he expects to inherit from his
mom.
George W. Bush could feel Anthony's pain. It's not easy
being a child of incredibly wealthy parents. Indeed, as the President
noted, "death taxes" are supremely unfair to those who've earned these
millions. As Mr. Bush often mentions, he himself worked long hours his
whole life to be born into a rich family.
Our President recently
told the Detroit Economic Club that, in an era of government belt tightening,
“Spending discipline requires difficult choices.” But this choice was easy
as pie: the President chose to use our tax dollars to reduce the burden on
the most deserving. And who could be more deserving than Barbara's kids?
The President himself, who stands to inherit well over $76 million from his
parents, will save at least $12.7 million. Talk about family
values!
This year, the President's budget eliminated the $255 paid
to widows of social security recipients. But who needs a measly $255 when
you're going to save millions on the estate you inherit?
Here's how
much your family will save, if your family is the Astors. Under current
law, Anthony would have to pay the government 46% of his profits from his
mother's death, after the first tax-free $2 million. Now, Anthony will get
the first five million tax-free and the tax rate on the rest is cut in
half.
Altogether, this reduction in inheritance taxes will cost,
oh, a quarter trillion dollars over the next decade -- $267 billion, to be
exact. To pay for it, besides eliminating the $255 widow benefit, the
President's "difficult choices" included taking $12 million from the federal
traumatic brain injury assistance program and $119 million from housing for the
disabled.
But cripples looking for a government hand-out
should stop thinking selfishly. They should have more sympathy for the
Menendez brothers, whose parents were worth $14 million. The tax laws in
1989 reduced the net sum each of the two boys stood to inherit to just $2
million each, giving the young men no choice but to kill their parents for the
additional insurance money.
Apparently, one of the single largest
beneficiaries of the change will be Robert Durst. And now that he's out of
jail (he dis-membered his 71-year-old neighbor), the heir to the Durst real
estate billions can look forward to a bonus of, I'd estimate, at least a quarter
billion bucks from the US taxpayers. (With the extra Treasury treasure,
Durst can look for his wife who is, uh, missing.)
The President
could have used the quarter trillion to buy every displaced family from New
Orleans a one million dollar home. But, he reasoned, their kids would just
end up paying estate taxes on it when their parents kicked the
bucket.
Several newspapers deplored the way Anthony treated the
elderly Mrs. Astor. But, let me note, it was the Tax-and-Spend policies of
Big Government that forced him to dilute his mom's medicine. Let's face
it: until our President's bold action to repeal death taxes, Mrs. Astor, hanging
in there at 104 years of age, simply had no incentive to die.
The
National Association of Manufacturers, the key lobby for the end of estate
taxes, wrote every Congressman, "Why on earth should good, honest, hard-working
people" -- like Durst, Marshall and the Menendez kids -- have to pay taxes while
other Americans just slack it?
Until the Republicons took action
this week, Americans have simply had no reason, said our president, to
"accumulate wealth." I know that in my own dad's case, rather than become
a multi-millionaire, he chose to work 65 hours a week in a furniture store, with
no pension, just so my sister and I would never have to fear estate taxes.
Congress' vote last week would eliminate only 74% of the taxes on
America's wealthiest. Our President is not satisfied. Mr. Bush will not
rest in peace until we emulate one of the only nations on the planet without any
death taxes, Saudi Arabia. There, our president could point to the example
of the billionaire bin Laden family, whose scion, Osama, unburdened by estate
taxes, has donated his entire inheritance to "faith-based
initiatives."
Greg Palast is the
author of the New York Times bestseller, "ARMED MADHOUSE: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China
Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and other
Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War." To find out more about
the book and to read Palast's reports go to www.GregPalast.com You may
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