Stealth Campaign by Super Wealthy to Repeal Estate Tax
A newly-released report from Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy tells of a “stealth campaign” of 18 super-wealthy families, including the family of Alabama’s Marguerite Harbert, to repeal the federal estate tax.
From the press release:
The report (PDF file) details for the first time the vast money, influence and deceptive marketing techniques behind the rhetoric in the campaign to repeal the tax.
It reveals how 18 families worth a total of $185.5 billion have financed and coordinated a 10-year effort to repeal the estate tax, a move that would collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion.
And more…
In a massive public relations campaign, the families have also misled the country by giving the mistaken impression that the estate tax affects most Americans. In particular, they have used small businesses and family farms as poster children for repeal, saying that the estate tax destroys both of these groups. But just more than one-fourth of one percent of all estates will owe any estate taxes in 2006. And the American Farm Bureau, a member of the anti-estate tax coalition, was unable when asked by The New York Times to cite a single example of a family being forced to sell its farm because of estate tax liability.
According to the report, Marguerite Harbert’s son Raymond Harbert “now serves as a leader and benefactor of the group”. He serves as “‘funding chairman’ and has personally contributed $500,000″ to the group.
Our own Sen. Sessons co-authored legislation proposing to repeal the estate tax. You may remember how Sessions was searching the dead from Hurricane Katrina for “anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with” on the issue of repealing the estate tax.
On the other hand, “roughly 120 millionaires and billionaires have circulated a petition” opposing the repeal of the estate tax.
