The New Exchange / Looking out For You

**Posted by Goose** 1/29/2019 1:45 am

Top GOP senators propose repealing estate tax, which is expected to be paid by fewer than 2,000 Americans a year

Three Republican Senators introduced a plan Monday to repeal the federal estate tax, moving to eliminate a tax on a small number of the wealthiest households just as leading Democrats ramp up calls to tax the richest Americans.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) joined Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and John Thune (R-SD), members of the Senate Finance Committee, in releasing legislation to permanently repeal the federal estate tax, which conservatives refer to as “the death tax.”

The Republican tax law passed in 2017 already dramatically weakened the estate tax, allowing couples with $22 million to pass on their estates without facing the tax.

[Elizabeth Warren to propose new ‘wealth tax’ on very rich Americans, economist says]

In 2018, following the GOP tax law, only 5,000 taxpayers were expected to file estate tax returns, according to projections by the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, an organization of estate attorneys, based on Internal Revenue Service data. About 1,700 families are expected to actually pay the tax annually, said Howard Gleckman, a tax expert with the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/01/28/top-gop-senators-propose-repealing-estate-tax-which-is-expected-be-paid-by-fewer-than-americans-year/?utm_term=.dd1c18a71e34

**Posted by Just Fred** 1/29/2019 7:31 am

The reason the estate tax was instituted was, as Thomas Jefferson noted, was to prevent exactly what happened in Europe ............... the creation of an ultra-wealthy lazy class of people who never had to work a day in their life.

**Posted by Goose** 1/29/2019 7:46 am

To me this story provides a clear window into the mindset of Republicans; who they consider to be their constituency, whom they feel that they were sent to Washington to represent.

Here we have United States Senators spending their time planning a tax break that affects all of 1,700 families a year,,,,, providing protections from a tax that has already been so gutted that people only pay it AFTER getting their first $22 million tax free.

These senators aren't sweating over students, grannies on social security,, people struggling to pay property taxes, healthcare, the people of Flint drinking tainted water,,the list goes on.

If you didn't know who the GOP senate looks out for, you do now.

**Posted by tennyson** 1/29/2019 10:41 am

It always has always been a "sounds good", but with almost NO impact for most individuals.