On New Year’s Day, the estate tax, an essential part of the U.S. tax system for almost 100 years, disappeared because Congress failed to act in December.
Congressional leaders now are pledging to act in early 2010 to reinstate the federal estate tax retroactive to Jan. 1. In the meantime, rhetoric over the estate tax will heat up while Congress grapples with what to do now.
This crazy situation is the result of the Bush tax cuts for the super-rich, tax cuts that were supposed to lead to “trickle-down” prosperity for the rest of us. What we have seen instead is stagnation of wages for most Americans, while those at the very top have become extraordinarily rich. In fact, disparities of wealth and income are now at the highest level since the Gilded Age, just before the stock market crash of 1929.
With so much wealth in so few hands, our economy has begun to operate more like a casino, with high-risk speculation fueling boom-and-bust cycles that have wrecked communities across our country. The gilded yachts of the super-rich have left in their wake capsized rafts of the unemployed and whole communities drowning in foreclosures.
That’s not what America should be about.
Instead of pandering to the whims of the super-rich and their heirs, we need Congress to strengthen the Main Street economy, beginning with a vibrant middle class and a respect for honest, hard work. Giving a huge tax giveaway to the heirs of America’s wealthiest families is entirely the wrong approach.
It’s time to stop showering wasteful tax breaks upon the super-rich. We instead must call upon Congress to strengthen the federal estate tax and support proposals that find a middle ground between the weakened 2009 estate tax and the pre-Bush level of 2001.
Brian Miller, Executive Director of United for a Fair Economy
