Action: YAY for the “DEATH TAX”, our most progressive tax! Tell your legislators to support bills that raise estate taxes to the 2009 level or higher. 

Two GOP attacks on the poor and sick this week… Senator Rand Paul stated that “Any new spending (est. $10.2 billion for the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund bill) should be offset by cutting spending that’s less valuable”…like Medicaid. Meanwhile, millionaire Agriculture Sec. Sonny Perdue is proposing eligibility rules that would remove 3 million people barely above poverty level from the food stamp program, with an average annual “savings” of $2.5 billion. You can discuss that with him here.

It’s been such an exciting race to the bottom, we may have missed just how much money has been removed from our coffers by the deficit-inducing 2017 TaxScam, including the bloating of the estate tax exemption from $5.5 million to $11 million ($22 million per couple). Returning to the pre-2017 rate would pay off Rand and Perdue’s demands, with a lot left over – see our easy “explainer” below. We need to let our legislators know that restoring a rational estate tax isn’t just some arcane issue, but a critically important step towards safeguarding democracy. That there are at least SIX GOP bills (listed below) to kill what’s left of it is a great tip-off as to how important this is to people like our president, who stated…

“The point is that you can’t be too greedy.”

Here are some bills we need our legislators to support NOW!

•  H.R.3922/S.2231 – the “American Opportunity Accounts Act,” which would use the increased revenues to mitigate our wealth gap by creating savings accounts for every American child
•  S.1950 – “Strengthen Social Security by Taxing Dynastic Wealth Act“, which concentrates on strengthening Social Security and expanding benefits.
• S.309  – “For the 99.8%” is a multi-tiered expansion that taxes the rich according to their degree of wealth. Bernie Sanders’ team estimates that it would raise around $2.2 trillion from 588 billionaires within 10 years.
• Not posted yet – Senator Kamala Harris proposes to return the estate tax rate to $5.5 million, close tax loopholes, and give the new funds directly to teachers, who, unlike heirs to multi-million dollar fortunes, may be working second jobs.

Minimal script for reps: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep. [___] to cosponsor ALL bills that raise the estate tax to pre-2017 TaxScam level, and preferably to the 2009 level, including  H.R.3922– “American Opportunity Accounts Act“.

Rep-check for H.R. 3922 here.  Reps. Brownley and Carbajal are not yet cosponsors.

Minimal script for senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to cosponsor ALL bills that raise the estate tax to pre- 2017 TaxScam level, and preferably to the 2009 level, including: S.2231 – “American Opportunity Accounts Act“, S.1950 – “Strengthen Social Security by Taxing Dynastic Wealth Act“, and  S.309 – “For the 99.8%.” Continue reading “Thurs 7/25: Sen. Rand wants to “offset the costs” of the 9/11 responders bill. Sure. But first, rescind the 2017 TaxScam’s lovely “departing” gift to the uber-wealthy.” →