VanHollen blames Republicans for impending tax hikes
I don’t like Chris VanHollen. He was my congressman when my paycheck was held hostage in the Maryland gulag of Montgomery County and I hated every minute. VanHollen looks like a shifty used car dealer and talks like one, too. Today he misinforms the public in the Washington Post about the fight against the Democrats’ impending tax hikes just two weeks away from taking effect;
Senate Republicans have made it clear they are willing to raise taxes this January on middle-class Americans unless they get tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires – despite the fact that a tax hike on the middle class could slow an already anemic economic recovery.
Yeah, we’re two weeks away from the tax hikes without a resolution because Democrats have kicked the can down the road this whole year. The truth is that until the November elections, they’d just planned on letting the Bush tax rates expire so they could raise our taxes without actually owning the tax hike.
They had an opportunity to extend the rates before the election, but Nancy Pelosi thought she could hold our votes hostage.
Van Hollen’s whole hissy today in the Post is about estate taxes, or death taxes. He’s upset that Republicans want to exempt estates up to $5 million from this completely irresponsible tax. It’s the height of class warfare. All of a decedent’s estate has already been taxed while he was earning it, and then it gets taxed again upon the decedent’s demise – and the tax is due to the government in 9 months, no matter what form that estate takes, property, business or cash. So the survivors have to sell off the estate to meet the taxes.
If the estate is a business, the business has to be sold. If it’s a farm, the farm must be sold. How is that good for the economy? Van Hollen disagrees;
But this last-minute $23 billion giveaway made payable to the wealthiest estates in the country – which digs us deeper into debt without adding a single job – is simply a bad deal for the American people.
It might not add jobs, but it’ll save some.
Category: Congress sucks, Liberals suck
And remember, the Dems wanted it to be 55 percent starting at $1 million. Now before Joe comes in here to swoop-and-poop about how only “rich” people have those kinds of estates, consider the following: how much is a million?
Equity in the home/appraised value? Check.
Life insurance policy? Check.
401(K) balance? Check.
I’m nowhere NEAR rich, but in my case, add those three up and you’re over the $1M mark. And I’m nowhere near retirement. But why should I save, invest, or do anything more knowing my descendents will never see the fruits of my labor? Look at that middle word, people–INVEST. Meaning my money doesn’t go back into the economy for companies who would look to hire workers, expand, create new products, etc., etc…
That’s why you’re a ri-tard, Mr. VanHollen.
I am not likely to inherit anything. But, so what.
This tax is the most offensive, anti-liberty and Un-American exercise of government oppression. If a tax paying citizen dies his/her wealth should to be transferred to the persons of their choosing.
Government is not entitled to a single penny.
Are we only allowed to play with the toys until the Govt calls clean up? Or, do we own the toys we earn?
In another time this provision alone would have been grounds for a revolution.
Utter nonsense. The majority of the people posting on this site are breathtakingly selfish, self centered and narcissistic. They are so fond of themselves they are clueless to all the people and all the infrastructure that allowed them to enjoy some degree of success. Almost too pathetic and juvenille for words…..
Condsider youself swooped and pooped……
Fuck you, Joe. If wanting to keep what I EARNED through my blood, sweat, and tears (two of the three quite literally) makes me selfish, then so be it. Whose fucking business is it of yours HOW I obtained my wealth as long as I did it legally? YOU certainly had no hand in it. You just had your hand out, expecting me to just fork it over to you for the asking. Why don’t you kiss my ass first?
I’d rather be “selfish” than surrender my efforts to a bunch of thieves without so much as a whisper, which is probably why they do it after I’m dead.
Oh, and a little history lesson for ya, my little ri-tard:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/f7c34848582a114133f90711b50b9a3a.pdf
How does keeping the wealth I’ve earned cost the government anything?
Rhetorical, of course.
Which brings up a serious issue. About two years ago, Bass Pro was going to build a mega center down the road. The local government and Bass Pro couldn’t come to an agreement on taxes. The locals said it was going to cost them too much to make the concessions Bass Pro wanted. So now, Bass Pro said fuck you, keep that lot empty. How much did the local government lose now?
The premise that your money belongs to the government is destroying this country. It’s a false argument that is destroying jobs and (ironically) robbing government revenue that it does need for basic services. This country desperately needs to do some soul searching on what role the government is supposed to play.
2549,
Sounds like Bass Pro didn’t get the corporate welfare it wanted, so it took its ball and went home. Good riddance. Could be the locals would have lost way more in corporate giveaways than they would have gained in employment. Extortion on Bass Pro’s part. Next time maybe a business with a modicum of civic responsibility, striving to reinvest in the community, will come around instead of a corporation with its hand out for freebies. Funny how you guys are all in favor of corporate welfare, just not the kind that goes to help real people.
…”The majority of the people on this site are breathtakingly selfish, self centered, and narcissistic…”
——-
Joe, what the devil’s gotten into you this morning?! You know, for a fact, that most of the regulars here work in the public service sector, either government or private. And I think at least one or two own their own business(es). Do you see any silver spoons in anyone’s mouth around here??
What is wrong with working for what you have, and then being allowed to enjoy it without interference? Not one person here has said that we should not support our government or our infrastructures; what they’ve said is that both the citizens AND the government need to take responsibility for what is spent and how.
As far as the estate tax goes, many of the founding fathers (you’re big on them, aren’t you?) believed in the incompatibility of democracy and inherited wealth. Teddy Roosevelt declared that the transmission of large wealth to young men “does not do them any real service and is of great and genuine detriment to the community at large.” Herbert Hoover disdained the “idle rich” and gave strong support to breaking up large fortunes. So it ain’t so simple as I, me mine.
That’s not what I’ve been reading here, PintoNag. I’ve seen almost no recognition of the outside world, and all the help it’s given these people, except as a vehicle to steal all their hard earned money. Several things strike me – the martyrific notion these posters have that they’re the only ones who ever had to work (boo hoo, I’m gonna cry), the notion that virtually everyone beyond their circle is trying to steal from them (paranoia?), the idea that it is only due to their own personal brilliance and work ethic that they are successful (forget about all the little people who helped pave the way) – just a regression back to feudal times. I expect Jonn will be putting up a deep moat around his forested castle any day now.
Could be the locals would have lost way more in corporate giveaways than they would have gained in employment.
Could be that you once again demonstrate the principle that there are those who know, those who don’t, and sadly, you don’t even SUSPECT.
The community didn’t want to INVEST the cost of bringing a major business to their town. Look at what building or widening a road/street near that facility (among other things) would have provided:
–Property taxes on a developed versus empty lot.
–Sales taxes on the merchandise sold there.
–State/local income taxes of the employees.
–More property/vehicle/sales taxes of the employees who now have money to spend on other items.
–More sales/property taxes for ancillary businesses that would have sprung up around said facility.
The inept town officials just pissed all of that away.
Oh, and please show me where the FF were against wealth, ri-tard. TR and HH were against IDLE wealth–you remember those guys, people like the Kennedys, Kerrys, and Rockefellers of the world? What TR was talking about was putting wealth to WORK, and making it work for others, not have it fucking raped by the government. I’m pretty sure that were he alive today, he’d be as appaled by the death tax as most are here.
If I understand your concerns, you are championing the position of people that we currently call “marginalized”; that is to say, people who have fallen through the cracks, the poor, the faceless, suffering groups in our nation. You are not, possibly for sake of simplicity, including how they may have ended up this way, either through their fault or not, is this correct?
Your argument appears to be the “limited resources” argument: that the ratio of people to resources is unbalanced. That, because there are people who have more than just what it takes to survive, and there are people who are suffering because they don’t have enough, the folks who have a little more should “trim the fat” and help the folks that don’t have enough.
Have I voiced your basic argument correctly? Or please correct me if I haven’t.
Sorry, #13 was addressed to Joe in his post #11.
Joe, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, at less than $35,000 a year I’m not rich, and the taxes I endure still hurt. If the dems had had their way I’d be looking at a substantial decrease in my take home pay. I also realize that confiscating even 90% of the entire combined wealth of the top 10% wealthiest in this country still wouldn’t support the spending habits of the liberal mentality. Simple math. My $30k a year is mine, another’s $500k is their’s. The ammounts don’t matter, they can keep it, and would you kindly let me keep mine.
PintoNag,
I guess that’s kinda it. Yeah, people can end up on the street either thru their own mistakes, or they can do everything right, and still have bad luck – catastrophic illness, jobs shipped overseas, etc. The latter are the people I worry about, and the ones who never really had a chance to begin with – little kids who thru no fault of their own end up with few prospects. I strongly feel a “normal”, well adjusted person wants to be a part of society – the $64 question is how to incentivize/motivate people to do the right thing, to respect the dignity of work, etc. Sure, there are some inmcorrigibles out there, and I would also like to figure out how to weed them out, as opposed to calling every single person in need a freeloader and a deadbeat.
I think a modern nation has a greater responsibility than just protecting our borders. I feel a modern nation is a “complex adaptive system”, to borrow a term. Complex systems, with millions of moving parts, operate better and more efficiently when all the parts are healthy. It doesn’t help any of us if millions of people are suffering and out of work. You may batten down the hatches, build a moat, put up razor wire, but sooner or later national dysfunction will catch up with you too. Some nations that are better at investing in their own people recognize that fact. They recognize they have a national responsibility. Here we tend to think if everyone just operates with their own narrow self interst in mind, somehow that will magically produce a functioning nation……
Working in at least one part of the equation, I can clearly identify one answer to part of the problem: it’s hard to be the one to drop the axe on someone else’s neck. When that young single mother is sitting in front of you, pregnant, with two little ones in tow, and she is earnestly pleading with you to give her just a little more time, she’s TRYING to find a job, the rent is due, and if she loses her benefits she can’t get the prenatal care she needs…
most people I know would rather step in front of a bus than turn that lady away. And in the end, to make these programs efficient, someone would have to drop the axe. On someone. Somewhere.
The American public is not selfish and narcissistic, Joe. The problem, the REAL problem, is Americans’ hearts are so big and we are so generous, that we HATE to see anyone suffer. So all the folks with the axe put it away, just one more time…just one more time…this person just needs a little more time… we can afford to help this person just a little longer…
If this country has a problem, it’s that we’ve turned ourselves into a doormat.
PintoNag,
Thanks, I do see your perspective. I hadn’t thought about it that way, the actual human interface where someone has to say “No!” to someone else, but that must be a hard position to be in. I just wish we could figure out a way to say “No – but here’s an avenue you might try to dig your self out of your hole, and here’s a support system for you while you’re digging yourself out.”. I guess I’ve flogged this dead horse long enough for one day……
It’s always a pleasure, Joe! 🙂
“Could be the locals would have lost way more in corporate giveaways than they would have gained in employment.” Joey, Joey, how in the name of all that is smart can the “locals” be better off with not having 40 or 400 NEW jobs in the area? Oh, that’s right, they can get unemployment extensions, and more welfare, and food stamps, right? Why get up and go to work when you can say, nope, not gonna widen that road, why that’s “corporate welfare”.
You make claim to not being clueless, then sit down behind a keyboard and confirm that you are.
You seem hung up on “jobs shipped overseas”, yet when a corporation wants to “import” jobs, you’re happier than a pig in shit when they don’t. Does. Not. Compute.
So Mr. Van Hollen is upset that Republican senators have agreed to raise the death tax from the current rate of 0% to 35%.
He doesn’t get out much, does he?
OK UpNorth, I guess it would depend on the details of the deal Bass Pro was trying to work out. I do know that many, many corporations have essentially extorted concessions from desperate municipalities, concessions that the cities later regretted. I guess as far as this deal goes, the devil is in the details…..