But that all changed when George Bush was elected, and now rich people feel downright embarrassed about using sophisticated estate planning services and dodgy asset valuation schemes to reduce their estate tax liability. This newfound respect for the law means that we just don't need all those lawyers anymore. The super-rich can be trusted to do the right thing all on their own.

The snarkiness is both becoming and highly appropriate, Kevin. I commend you. Keep channeling your inner bitch.

For more background on the staff cuts and the GOP class warriors going after the IRS, see:
"IRS Slashes Staff Auditing Wealthiest Americans"

Absolutely right! (Pun intended) And one of those things they can be trusted to do is create jobs. For example, corporate lobbyist, menial personal servant, and wingnut welfare ghost writer.

Moreover, extending the theory of Good Rich People, we should also turn over to them the tasks of regulating the actions of corporations run by said Rich People, dealing with all those pesky lawsuits brought by injured losers against said corporations, and selecting the legislators who pass the laws allowing said lawsuits.

I mean, they're Good People. What more can you ask?

OT but someone please give Mr. Stohlberg, an ex-Speaker of CT the Medal of Freedom for scolding Joe Leiberman for supporting a VP who fits the dictionary definition of fascism.

With this type of people in-charge, dismissal of IRS lawyers in order to surreptitiously achieve ends that the Congress does not support is very small potatoes indeed.

Bush cut off some graverobbers from the government payroll. Good for him. The American government should not be cackling in glee and demanding a check when grandpa dies.

I think this move is wonderful. Anything that makes life easier for Paris Hilton is all right by me. (Sarcasm intended.)

The American government should not be cackling in glee and demanding a check when grandpa dies.

It shouldn't just sit back and watch the rise of a powerful aristocracy either.

fuck you american hawk.

I bet they don't actually lay anybody off, Kevin. The government has a way of saying they will "cut positions" when what is really happening is they are leaving vacant positions unfilled.

The American government should not be cackling in glee and demanding a check when grandpa dies.
Dumb Bird (American Hawk)

But the other day the republicans were all excited and gloating about the 20% increase in tax gains?

WTF??

Are you guys being hypoctites again?

It's called 'consitutent service'.

Down goes Frasier,

Are you trying to be clever, like some of the other posters, or are you just retarded? The point is that there will be fewer people to enforce estate tax law than there should be, and that would be true regardless of whether the reduction is through layoffs or attrition.

"Bush cut off some graverobbers from the government payroll."

I agree wholeheartedly. How does taxing death make any sense at all? I know libs love the idea of soaking the rich, because success can never go unpunished (the Democrat party...the party of losers), but it's simply a ridiculous tax. Maybe Democrats can propose a "mid-life estate tax" as well that nails people when they are 40 years old. It would make just as much sense and be just as fair.

"How does taxing death make any sense at all?"

See, it prevents the U.S. from creating a hereditary aristocracy. Once upon a time, Republicans worried about this. Today, it's the Democrats. I don't know about you, but the increasing gap between rich and poor is bothering me. I would prefer not to live in a banana republic, thank you very much.

If the middle class disappears, then there will be a lot of poor people and only a few hereditary aristocrats. Unless the wealthy have all the guns, and they won't, the rich will suddenly find themselves in a very awkward position indeed.

Like I said, once upon a time even the wealthy realized that if they were to keep their wealth and continue to live in a stable democracy, there couldn't be a huge gap between rich and poor.

It's not about taxing death or dead people and any liberal who takes that bait is a fool. It's about taxing income. The person who died doesn't have to pay taxes (he/she is DEAD). The money has to be taxed before it is transfered--that's income.

It's not rocket science.

This is evil. Is it possible to find out who actually came up with this idea? I'm serious -- we should know exactly who in government thought this up.

It's customary to use tax policy to discourage behaviors -- e.g. we don't want people to smoke, so we tax cigarettes.

If the estate tax were simply set high enough, and applied to enough people, we could make dramating inroads into the number of people dying every year.

'gq' posted:

"It's not rocket science"

It is for RightWingers. The fools STILL believe that when you cut income tax rates, income tax revenues INCREASE !
.

Actually, the estate tax is due to disappear in 2010, and then come back at 2001 levels in 2011. And the R's are desperate to make sure that does not happen.

And for the record, only a couple thousand filthy rich folks ever have to pay estate tax as it is.

The IRS is not allowed to measure dollars per hour of audit anymore (actually they never were supposed to to that). So the big push is to do "limited scope" audits, and "touch" as many taxpayers as possible, expecially the corporations. Somehow this lets the taxpayer know the IRS is still around (remember those stories about record low numbers of audits in the recent past?) I call it catch-and-release auditing.

The snarkiness is both becoming and highly appropriate, Kevin. I commend you. Keep channeling your inner bitch.

I was going to say something similar. Attaboy!

Disagree with what?

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ffhjkl nailed it!

Some data from the GOP war on the IRS:

- In 1999, for the first time, the poor were more likely than the rich to have their tax returns audited. The overall rate for people making less than $25,000 a year was 1.36%, compared with 1.15% of returns by those making $100,000 or more...Over the previous 11 years audit rates for the poor had increased by a third, while falling 90 percent for the top tier of Americans.

- The IRS audited 397,000 of the working poor who applied for the Earned Income Tax Credit in 2001, eight times as many audits as it conducted of people making $100,000 or more. That works out to one of every 47 returns seeking the credit, compared to about one in every 366 taxpayers who did not apply for it.

It's very simple: the Laffer curve definitively proves that, at some level, reducing the number of IRS estate tax lawyers will actually increase the level of compliance.

Plus, if we allow vast estates to pass unhindered from generation to generation, we hasten the day when a few wealthy families own everything, which is good for everyone, because then there will be lots of jobs as maids and valets and things like that. It worked well for the Brits! Now, I nominate Lieberman as the first member of the new House of Lords...

This is like the little-known rule in the game of Monopoly which states that if any of the players are rich, they are to be given all the cash at the game's outset--because it's only fair! It makes it hard for the other players to win and rather boring, but you can liven things up by killing the rich guy.

NYT: The administration plans to cut the jobs of 157 of the [Internal Revenue Service's] 345 estate tax lawyers

TIME: one presidential adviser wants Bush to beef up his counsel's office for the tangle of investigations that a Democrat-controlled House might pursue.

The American government should not be cackling in glee and demanding a check when grandpa dies. - American Hawk

As many relatives as I have had die in my family, never ONCE has the estate tax come into play. My grandfather was pretty well off by middle class standards but not even he had his money molested by the dreaded "death tax" so please turn the volume down on your hysterics. This Paris Hilton benefit bonanza you are so against will, in all likelyhood, NEVER apply to 95% of us.

Abolish the PAYROLL taxes and now you're talking my language! It makes FAR more sense to remove the burdensome payroll taxes up front and leave the estate taxes on the back end. Wouldn't you agree?

Our local paper recently had a sob story about a 102 year old man with no family who was supposedly screwed by the estate tax. He wanted to give his 20 million dollar estate to a company he previously owned. The company had 385 employees. He did no estate planning.

I'm not an accountant or a lawyer, but I quickly thought of two legal methods by which he could have completely avoided the estate tax and succeeded in helping his company if he had started planning for his death when he turned 99.

My advice is to start planning well before that if there is a potential that it might apply. Tax-free transfer of property between spouses, gifts under the exemption limit, charitable deductions -- take advantage of them while you are alive.

Record energy use in California. Requests to hold down use. If it had gone any higher, power cuts?

Queens, NYC, has a burn out of power lines. St. Louis has an ongoing power outage. Past recent similar events.

I seem to remember a time when we sneered at the Eastern European countries for the same.

NO comment here, though!

More on the death of irony-- As conservatives hack away at the ill-named "death tax", the birth tax being passed on to our children and grandchildren grows exponentially. But, hey, we don't really care about them, do we?

The conservative fetish regarding tax cutting along with their craven cowardliness regarding cutting govt. spending is accelerating the bankruptcy of the U.S. government. Being the great patriots that they are, I'm sure they will salute as the American ship of state sinks beneath the waves...

mr. jayarbee: This is like the little-known rule in the game of Monopoly which states that if any of the players are rich, they are to be given all the cash at the game's outset--because it's only fair! It makes it hard for the other players to win and rather boring, but you can liven things up by killing the rich guy.

Bwa!

The American government should not be cackling in glee and demanding a check when grandpa dies. - American Hawk

Grandpa's relatives should not be cackling in glee and slavering over their tax-free payoff when he dies, you fool. Grandpa owes a debt to his country for having allowed him to prosper. If he isn't glad to pay that debt, maybe "patriotic" would not be a good word to describe grandpa.

Legislating From the Oval Office!
Legislating From the Oval Office!
Legislating From the Oval Office!
Will Of The People!
Will Of The People!
Will Of The People!
Up or Down Vote!
Up or Down Vote!
Up or Down Vote!

>when they are 40 years old. It would make just as much sense and be just as fair.

Yeah, because when you turn 40 you're as good as dead anyway.

Spoken like a true Cheeto-munching kid living off his parents in their basement.

Fine by me. The only thing that the Bushies did for gay people was to reduce or substantially eliminate the estate tax. Now I can pass my estate to my same-sex partner virtually tax free--and vice versa.

"The super-rich can be trusted to do the right thing all on their own."

The super-rich can only be counted on the enrich themselves. If left alone, they will turn back the clock a century: no benefits, no safety net, no eight hour day. Look what they did in the Marianna Islands when they thought no one was looking.

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Yeah, the Army can't pay its electrical power bills, but Flying Spaghetti Monster forbid that we should actually set taxes at levels that would force the tax-cut and spend Republicans to pay for their massive giveaways to their no-bid buddies.

They apparently do not understand that for Uncle Sam, there are no rich parents to die and dig us out of the credit card hole they've spent us into.

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lets see, the rich get rich mostly through exploitation. But, the rich are sufficiently honorable to "do the right thing" when it comes to paying their estate taxes. The cult of republicanism's self-delusional thinking, hubris, and contempt for the non-rich are astounding, but also of course very convenient.

Jesus Christ....almost half their estate lawyers? How the hell are they supposed to collect any revenue, when you've got rich people doing their best to avoid paying already? Even 345 lawyers isn't enough!

Have you ever heard the saying, "you can't take it with you?" It's not like I'm gonna need the money when I'm dead. And neither will my children, I'm going to see to it that they can support themselves, they won't need to live as social parasites.

Yet another directive to play to Bush's base. You know, the Haves and the Have-mores.

You're actually supposed to let them cheat to a small degree.

Look, if they cheat you a little they feel important and it doesn't do that much harm. If you go after them REALLY REALLY hard then they get angry and they either find really creative ways to cheat, or they go after you. Either way it's far more efficient and cost effective to let them cheat... a LITTLE.

Not like this though. Blech. Nasty.

Neither the rich nor anybody else "can be trusted to do the right thing all on their own." How many of us are angels? That's why, for one thing, we need third-party reporting of capital gains, the same as we've had third-party reporting of wages since WWII. A bill to accomplish this has been introduced both in the Senate (S.2414) and the House (HR.5367). If you care about tax equity, ask your Senators and Representatives to get behind these bills.

and now rich people feel downright embarrassed about using sophisticated estate planning services and dodgy asset valuation schemes to reduce their estate tax liability.

The idea that you should be embarrassed to use estate planning to minimize your tax burden is itself embarrassing. The estate tax code, like everything else in the tax code, is complicated, and requires the help of specialists. Have you ever gotten help with your taxes Kevin? Or maybe since you're volunteering wealthy people to send in extra money to the government, you should send in some extra of your own next April 15. As we all know, if you don't actively engage in the policies you support, you're a chickenhawk.

Also, for the moron who said earlier that it was a tax on income, well, it's not. It's a tax on the gross estate at the time of death. The top marginal estate tax rate in 2006 is 46% with a $2 million exemption. The top marginal income tax rate is (I believe but I could be wrong) 37%. Inheritance is not taxed as income to the beneficiary. Liberals should be against taxing inheritance as income, because it would mean less money that the government could take in most instances. Wait! I have an idea! Let's tax it twice! Evil rich people have too much money!

lets see, the rich get rich mostly through exploitation.

The vast majority of rich people have become so through hard work and talent. I forget the exact percentages, but almost all millionaires are self-made. Tossing around the name of Paris Hilton as if that's an argument doesn't really change that fact. I just don't see why money that has been taxed when it's earned, taxed when it's spent, taxed when it's saved, and taxed when it's invested needs to be taxed again when it's passed on. I think Americans intuitively understand this, which is why silly scaremongering about an aristocracy convinces few.

It's amazing to witness the level of hatred for successful people.

If we made it a wealth tax instead, it would be paid every year. The there'd be no farcical connection to dead people. Then people who needed services the most, especially those who "needed" a huge military to protect their massive assets, would actually pay for them. Conservatives should be delighted. It's something liberals could grudingly accept.

I work in corporate tax.
The statute of limitations is 5 years, but if you file a fraudulent claim, there is no statute.
It really depends what you are doing and who is helping you do it. Fraud is rarely used, but stretching one's interpretation of the law is common.

I just find it strange that gross receipts of tax are up, yet we need less collectors.

An I.R.S. wmployee called the cuts a “back-door way for the Bush administration to achieve what it cannot get from Congress, which is repeal of the estate tax.”

Give me a break.

Cuts were made in our military during the Carter
admjinistration. Was that a back door way to enable China to conquer the United States?

The vast majority of rich people have become so through hard work and talent

but their children, not so much.

how on earth does your adulation of the hard-working self-made millionaire become a desire to see that person's children become millionaires themselves simply because of who their parents were ? shouldn't they have to earn their millions, too ? where's the
hard work and talent" in being born?

Was that a back door way to enable China to conquer the United States?

No. We've accomplished that through Bushco policies.

Was that a back door way to enable China to conquer the United States?

was the miltary cut in half ? nope.

This makes me think of an exchange from the Simpsons - when Lisa is being hauled off for teaching evolution theory.

Chief Wiggum: Lisa Simpson, you're under arrest for the teaching of non-Biblical science!

Lisa: There are so many worse crimes. Why are you persecuting me?

Wiggum: Uh well, we only have the man-power to enforce the last law passed. You know, it's not the best system, but... well in fact, it's, uh, it's pretty much the worst.

(Wiggum looks out the window, seeing Snake on top of the Kwik-E-Mart shooting people with an assault rifle)

Snake: You live! You die! [fires gun] You live! You die! [fires gun]

Wiggum: In the old days, we would've been all over that.

"how on earth does your adulation of the hard-working self-made millionaire become a desire to see that person's children become millionaires themselves simply because of who their parents were ?"

Because those who aren't part of the Lucky Sperm club are morally inferior.

HTH.

Homer: Re "The vast majority of rich people have become so through hard work and talent." Question: how can you possibly know this? Comment: I know a fair number of rich people, and they haven't worked any harder or had any more talent than the non-rich people I know. Conclusion: The vast majority of rich people have become so through...chance, luck, opportunity, etc. (And I include myself in that group.)

The snarkiness is both becoming and highly appropriate, Kevin. I commend you. Keep channeling your inner bitch. — shortstop

Kevin, your inner bitch is Al, isn't it?

;-)

Embryos and rich dead people - the only groups Bush really cares about.

What's wrong with a little corporation whose purpose is to feed, clothe, house, service, and blingify my heirs? It wouldn't exist if there wasn't a market for it.

"Blingify" gets my vote for the best invented word evah.

eliminating the estate tax goes to the very heart of the cult of republicanism's outlook and sense of entitlement: they have it, therefore they deserve it and are better than those who don't have it, who are so much trash because they don't have it, and are not worthy of having it because they don't have it, and because they are unworthy must be kept from getting it.

I call bullshit, and I should know bullshit better than anyone since I am an artist at it!

I hate rich tax evaders.

"Embryos and rich dead people - the only groups Bush really cares about."

...the unborn and the soulless (respectively).

"Cuts were made in our military during the Carter
admjinistration. Was that a back door way to enable China to conquer the United States?"
ex-liberal

The "Reagan" military buildup started during the Carter administration. Defense spending went up 30% from 1976 to 1979, from 89b to 116b. In the next four years it went up 57%. In the four years after that it went up 24%. In the four years previous to Carter it went up 8%. In the four years before that it dropped 4% (I presume that is the end of vietnam).

So I guess most right wingers would have to say Carter won the cold war?

Every rich person I know was born relatively well off, very upper middle class at least. They seem to have a pretty normal distribution of work ethic and skill. Consider that the rich people non-rich people are likely to know are the ones that are more economically dynamic. They are our bosses. The rich people who hang out in aspen all winter we middle-class people don't often get to know.

zoot: "Embryos and rich dead people - the only groups Bush really cares about."

Now I keep thinking: Only embryos and rich dead folks come out in the Bushday sun. No, I don't know what's the matter with me.

I call bullshit, and I should know bullshit better than anyone since I am an artist at it!

Posted by: Gregory on July 24, 2006 at 11:30 AM | PERMALINK

Ah, my doppleganger is back. I'm delighted -- I couldn't ask for a more explicit admission of the dishonesty of my opponents, nor that they have no real retort.

Tell ya what, doppleganger -- if you have a beef with one of my posts, make your case. Short of that, every one of these spoof posts is like waving the white flag.

Gregory, we love you, man...but it's doppelganger.

Forgive me. It's just a thing of mine.

Gregory, we love you, man...but it's doppelganger.

Ach! And to think I took four years of German in high school. I hang my head in shame at my carelessness.

Thanks shortstop! It is too bad you can't teach me how to develop a sense of humour.

Ah, my doppleganger is back. I'm delighted -- I couldn't ask for a more explicit admission of the dishonesty of my opponents, nor that they have no real retort

Gregory, I know just how you feel.

Thanks shortstop! It is too bad you can't teach me how to develop a sense of humour.

Or American spelling, eh, you smelly troll?

Thanks shortstop! It is too bad you can't teach me how to develop a sense of humour.

Posted by: Gregory on July 24, 2006 at 12:07 PM | PERMALINK

Ah, doppelganger, your would imply that I need one. Are you claimign that some of the posts I debunk -- and to which you can't retort -- are jokes? Or that I shouldn't, as I've said in the past, give a free pass to the serial dishonesty of certain posters if they happen to make a rare, non-dishonest post? Your implications rely on facts not at all in evidence.

But by all means, keep waving that white flag. Keep defending dishonesty with dishonesty -- it's so compelling!

American Chickenhawk: The American government should not be cackling in glee and demanding a check when grandpa dies.

Yet, it is okay for conservatives like American Chickenhawk to cackle in glee and demand a check each time an American soldier dies or is maimed in Iraq.

"The vast majority of rich people have become so through hard work and talent"

How many of them would have become rich if they lived in, say, Sudan?

This country provided the soil in which most of these fortunes could grow. It seems only right (and patriotic) to put some of that richness back into that environment when you no longer have use for it. That way your descendants will have the same opportunity to achieve success that you had.

Isn't that better than turning them into welfare kings and queens? (Paris Hilton is NOT beside the point.)

Perhaps I don't know how you feel, Gregory. For someone "delighted" to have a doppelganger, your typos suggest a certain amount of anger.

Also, I can't recollect a single comment you have made that was a refutation of any argument, including those from trosz or myself.

But, I am amused that handle-thieves target those other than myself.

For someone "delighted" to have a doppelganger, your typos suggest a certain amount of anger.

Nice attempt at projection, "Al," but all my typos suggest is that I'm a lousy typist -- which I cheerfully concede. Anger? Not at all.

I can't recollect a single comment you have made that was a refutation of any argument, including those from trosz or myself.

Your faulty memory is hardly my problem, "Al." Altough for my part I don't recall engaging any of your so-called arguments.

Funny you should bring up tbrosz, though -- I didn't, at least in this thread. Of course, pointing out that many of tbrosz' so-called "arguments" are intellectually dishonest kicks the props out from under them. tbrosz would fume that I didn't accept his false premises long enough to "refute" them -- but by pointing out the falsity, refuting his so-called "argument" is redundant.

For the record, of course, I should add that I've always condemned those who posted under tbrosz' handle -- although in their case, they were at least honest enough to usually post with a distinctive email. You, "Al," are a special case -- since several members of the Scaife Counter Blogging Project use that handle, you can hardly cry foul when someone posts an even more ridiculous version of your nonsense than your own.

I'm delighted, though, that you relish the dishonesty perpetrated by your fellow Bush apologists. No surprises there, of course.

"Intellectual honesty" is often in the eye of the beholder. To really refute an argument, you have to do something more than claim intellectual dishonesty- you have to demonstrate it with evidence, and I can't recall a single instance in which you have done this.

Also, I can't recall ever reading a tbrosz comment in which he "fumed". His comments were always particularly polite, even to his most impolite detractors.

I thought all Als were fake.

"Intellectual honesty" is often in the eye of the beholder.

Well, no, actually -- straw man arguments and other fallacies -- to say nothing of repeating, ad nauseum, long-discredited talking points -- are pretty consistently dishonest. At best, you have only the feeble "Deanna Trio defense": That if you really believe it, so you aren't lying. (Also known as the Constanza Conundrum.)

Of course, given the relish which Bush's apologists embrace straw man arguments and other fallacies -- to say nothing of repeating, ad nauseum, long-discredited talking points -- it's no surprise that they'd like to deny the intellectual dishonesty of their tactics.

To really refute an argument, you have to do something more than claim intellectual dishonesty- you have to demonstrate it with evidence, and I can't recall a single instance in which you have done this.

Again, "Al" -- or should I say "doppelganger"? -- your faulty recollection is not my problem. But no,

Also, I can't recall ever reading a tbrosz comment in which he "fumed". His comments were always particularly polite, even to his most impolite detractors.

Again, "Al," your faulty recollection is not my problem, but the fact remains that posting an undending series straw man arguments and other fallacies -- to say nothing of repeating, ad nauseum, long-discredited talking points -- is in itself a discourtesy, no matter how one generally eschews swear words.
Of course, if you interpret accusing Bush's critics of "rooting for America's defeat in Iraq" a courteous act, you're even more deluded -- or more dishonest -- than I thought.

Bottom line: One is under no obligation whatsoever to greet a serial liar with courtesy, and again, I see no reason why tbrosz -- who, I'll say again, at least demonstrated he was capable of debating honestly, even if to his shame he so often chose not to -- or anyone else should be given a free pass.

As I often say, I know there's no honest way of defending the Bush Administration's mendacity, incompetence, and corruption -- and I'm certainly glad when tbrosz and his ilk proves it -- but the point is that no one forces them to try. If you're going to put forth straw man arguments and other fallacies -- to say nothing of repeating, ad nauseum, long-discredited talking points -- you can be, an ought to be, called on it, and your future credibility is rightly questioned.

But the bottom line, "Al," is that however indignant you may be about me hurting poor widdle tbrosz' feelings, or those of the other intellectually dishonest Bush apologists in these threads, the fact remains is that you never challenged my characterizations of his comments, let alone successully. Instead, you (or, if you will, my doppelganger) went with your instincts -- lies, dishonesty, and deception. As I said, by your very acts, you're waving a white flag. You're proving my point in advance. QED.

Btw, I will be in the nearest cornfield masturbating and congratulating myself on my powers of debate.

Btw, I will be in the nearest cornfield masturbating and congratulating myself on my powers of debate.

Posted by: Gregory on July 24, 2006 at 2:17 PM | PERMALINK

Shorter doppelganger: I've got nothin'...

If my powers of debate are so feeble, doppelganger, then by all means refute me. Or just continue to wave that white flag like you're doing.

It's ironic, by the way, that my doppelganger returns in a thread called "The Honor System"...

Let's see just how many times I can make my doppelganger come back trying to get the last word in our "debate". It just proves how childish he is.

Let's see just how many times I can make my doppelganger come back trying to get the last word in our "debate". It just proves how childish he is.

Posted by: Gregory on July 24, 2006 at 2:31 PM | PERMALINK

[rolls eyes]

Obviously, my doppelganger -- still continuing his/her/its cowardly and dishonest use of my handle, email and all - craves the last word. Reminds me of some other intellecutally dishonest posters I've dealt with here, come to think of it.

Since this is a dead thread -- "Al" hasn't responded to my post, excpet -- perhaps -- to resume his/her/its activities as my doppelganger, who clearly has no response other than childish dishonesty -- I am pleased to give this cretin the dubious pleasure. Nothing from this point forward is by me; anything under my handle will be my doppelganger waving the white flag of cowardice and dishonesty.

"The honor system," indeed.

Like a dog drawn to its own shit, I just can't resist returning to see what mischief my doppelganger has been up to.

Al wrote:
But, I am amused that handle-thieves target those other than myself.

I'm amused at that also, Al. I thought only conservatives were targeted with childish stuff on this board.

I do have to credit Gregory for coining the use of the term 'doppelganger' for the fools who impersonate me on these boards.

Oh, and on the topic of this thread.

I am more than pleased that the Admin. can cut half the pork from the IRS tax lawyer pool. The fact that they're LAWYERS gives me added satisfaction.

Now they should proceed and cut the rest of the IRS in half. With the incredible gains in utilization of electronic filing, half the jobs in the IRS just represent bureaucratic waste anyway.

"one of those things they can be trusted to do is create jobs ..."

Yeah, and yacht salesmen, don't forget them. Where would they be without the SuperRich, aka Bush's Base.

"The American government should not be cackling in glee and demanding a check when grandpa dies. - American Hawk

Instead it should be cackling in glee and demanding a check when Johnny comes home with his minimum wage?

This is the talk of the true fascist: Hands off the rich, only the poor should support roads, schools, cops, the national defense, etc.

It is much more fair to tax unearned wealth than earned wealth, no matter how you cut it.

And the canard that the estate tax REtaxes what has already been taxed is bull. Most of what gets taxed is retained capital gains, which have NOT been taxed before, and may NEVER be taxed if not taxed at death. As the estate tax exclusion increases, this is more and more likely to be true, as only heritage wealth will be taxed ... self-made fortunes not so much.

"With the incredible gains in utilization of electronic filing, half the jobs in the IRS just represent bureaucratic waste anyway."

You can't electronically file an estate tax return. So logically, electronic filing of income tax returns should free up MORE people to audit estate and gift tax returns.

Pay no attention to the American Hawk. He is my pool boy and apparently has been in the brandy again. I find the boy endearing when he rushes to the internet to defend me. Apparently, he thinks since he lives in a mansion (beneath the stairs) he must be rich.

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