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Posted on 10/20/2007 11:41:41 AM PDT by BGHater
This past week, Congress had an opportunity to permanently repeal the death tax by amending the Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007 to include language that ends the estate tax forever. This would have been a good provision in an overall bad bill. 212 Democrats were enough to keep this spectre looming on the horizon if the Bush tax cuts are not renewed in 2011. The bill passed without this silver lining and now we face big in increases taxes and penalties in the next five years.
The underlying attitude behind this bill, and the estate tax, is what I find so distressing about tax policy in this country today - that being a growing disregard for property rights, which are so important to the American dream.
The basic tenets of the American dream are that through hard work and ingenuity, you can earn a better life for yourself, and you can give your children a better start than you had. Surveying American history this vision has played out through steady economic progress and growth from one generation to the next. Our prosperity now is our reward for hard work and achievement in the past. Today we are the strongest economy in the world, and have much to be proud of, but Congress doesn’t seem to understand that we did not tax our way here.
Conversely, a nation certainly can tax its way out of prosperity, and that’s one danger I see with this bill, and with policies like the death tax.
The death tax punishes one of the greatest and ultimate satisfactions of achieving the American dream – the knowledge that your life’s work is an investment in your family’s future. Instead of being able to focus on hard work, however, death tax provisions keep countless estate planners working countless hours helping Americans negotiate through complicated tax laws just to keep the fruits of their life’s work out of the squandering hands of government.
Other anti-property rights provisions in the Tax Collection Responsibility Act make desperate last attempts to extract the most amount of revenue possible from expatriots on their way out the door. A telling signal that a country is taxing itself to death is capital flight and expatriation. When successful Americans no longer feel their property is secure from government thieves, and they have too much to lose by staying, they vote with their feet and go elsewhere. This country is poorer for the loss of that citizen’s investment here, but it is their right to keep and enjoy what they have built up. How dare Congress or the IRS try to deny them that? And what message does that send to the next generation of young entrepreneurs?
It is troubling to me that this country is chasing away wealth, while entitlements recklessly grow. The power to tax is the power to destroy, and we are making strides towards destroying prosperity but expanding the welfare state. This is a dangerous and untenable trend.
186 Republicans and 10 Democrats voted with me last week to kill the Death Tax. It is my hope that we will get another chance in the future to end this punitive and un-American tax for good.
Restoring American liberty by abolishing one tax at a time.
Ping.
Too bad more people don’t understand that our entire system is based on REAL private property rights and that if the government can confiscate your property if you don’t cough up your property ‘taxes’, then you don’t REALLY own it after all.
"No nation ever taxed itself into prosperity..."
bttt, FRiend.
We elect a President to do a whole lot more then speak nice sounding rhetoric.
The dims have started a war on private property. I am not sure that you own anything in the current climate. Private property rights are the foundation of our republic. Without private property rights, nothing else matters.
We have been collectivized. The question is, are we willing to do something about it? No one else but Presidential candidate Ron Paul is talking about it at all. It must be embarrassing for conservatives to support the other candidates.
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Try telling 'conservatives' that.
I’ve heard enough from the other candidates to know that they’re really not serious about the Bill of Rights or restoring sound monetary policy. I don’t have any hopes that they’ll get on the truly conservative bandwagon. If they surprise me with what they say, none of them has a 30 year public history of sticking to these points without wavering.
Try telling 'conservatives' about that? Those Rockefeller-wing candidates are clearly not as conservative as Ron Paul. Even the independent Republicans like Tancredo and Hunter aren't talking about abolishing the Federal Reserve.
Ron Paul is a superstar in conservative monetary circles, and the other candidates are either unwilling to step up and admit that fiat currency is our main problem, or they don't understand it.
I'm proud to support a candidate who can debate Federal Reserve governors on these subjects.
Some? Watching the debates I am reminded of the somewhat infamous Family Guy episode where one of the characters is running for office. She's told if she wants to win just keep saying 9/11. Now while that phrase has been copyrighted to Rudy apparently the other candidates hardly mention the economy or taxes it seems. If they do, they somehow try to tie it to our ongoing 'struggle'. They're pandering to social conservatives knowing full well half that stuff couldn't get through Congress (rightly so) and the warhawks.
Private property and excessive taxation? Dr. Paul is the only one that has hit the nail on the head and repeatedly continues to do so. To expect the other Republican candidates to do the same would require a miracle
Brush up on your civics Johnnie. Legislation comes from Congress, the President's job is to set the agenda by using the bully pulpit, something that your buddy Bush hasn't done.
The alternative to restoring the constitution is unthinkable to me.
Heh, I used to look forward to Greenspan appearing in front of Dr. Paul. You knew in between the politicians asking Greenspan about nothing in general, Greenspan had to actually prepare for questions from Dr. Paul
And now Greenspan is starting to sound like Dr. No himself!
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