The White House had its jobs summit yesterday, which, while nice, is an admission that they have no idea how to address unemployment, even after all the money that’s been spent. Hopefully, it’s also an admission that, like Marc Ambinder says in the linked piece:
the White House does not seem to believe that anything sensible to meaningfully reduce the unemployment rate can be proposed, completed and paid for — and executed — by next November.
Finally, the reason people aren’t hiring is a complete lack of confidence: in the government, in the economy, in the future in general.
So it’s with perfect irony that the same day the White House holds a jobs summit and develops some positive PR on the economy, Nancy Pelosi’s House eviscerates that by voting to extend the estate tax permanently.
Just like the state government, who last year raised every tax a small business owner pays, you CAN NOT call yourself pro-small business if you consistently deliver blows to the entrepreneurial motivation.
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The only business government is in favor of expanding and growing is government.
Why did we even need a “job summit?” I thought Obama said that the Stimulus would take care of rising unemployment?
Dave – It’s sad that the State is raising taxes on the very people we depend on to drive us out of this recession.
Dave,
If you can explain the connection between lowering or doing away with the estate tax and how that might bolster “entrepreneurial motivation” you will turn me into a Republican.
It’s actually mind-blowing that you don’t see it, given your personal situation.
The disincentive of death being a taxable event that could force your heirs to sell your business should be clear as day to someone in a family business.
Perhaps your business falls under the exemption when passed to you. But what if you’re successful, and the business is worth more than the exemption when you pass it to your heirs?
Dave,
The estate tax was developed to prevent the permanent formation of a moneyed aristocracy. Now since we all know that the current moneyed aristocracy is the primary constituency of the republican party and are the beneficiaries of massive amounts of government largess (i.e. “too big to fail”), it isn’t surprising to me that you support the repeal of the estate tax. However, pretending that continuing to slant the economic table toward the wealthy is beneficial to entrepreneurs is disingenuous at best.
Maybe you should ask Warren Buffet why he supports an estate tax.
And if the estate tax were repealed, what’s your plan to make up the revenue loss?
“Maybe you should ask Warren Buffet why he supports an estate tax.”
It’s an easy position to take when you’ve given away your fortune to charity. He basically proved the point by deciding that private interests would do a better job with his money than the government.
One reason so many non-profits support the estate tax and were against its repeal is because it encourages donations to tax-exempt charities.
Buffet is correct: the estate tax provides a tax incentive to donate to charities.
Next point?
Billionaires get to make that decision. People who own family farms or small businesses don’t. I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes to people that I know. And this was a family that did a lot for charities for the right reasons, not for the tax deduction (and did more out of the spotlight than in the spotlight).
It is a TREMENDOUS disincentive to the growth of a business. I think about it right now at the age of 35, how I might operate as I grow so that my kids don’t have to sell.
Death should not be a taxable event.
Wrong again, Dave. There are exceptions for farms and businesses. And the huge vast majority of privately owned businesses in the U.S. don’t even approach the threshold of value where the estate tax kicks in.
The fact is that when wealth assets such as stocks and bonds, which have accrued massive capital gains over time, are passed on, any capital gain is wiped off the books for the deceased and the heirs. Therefore those gains are never taxed. NEVER. So drip, drip, drip – the wealth in this country is slowly but surely dripping into the hands of the wealthiest Americans at the expense of a shrinking working middle class and a persistent rise in poverty.
Dave, as a fellow entrepreneur, I respect what you’re doing. But I think that you’re totally, and perhaps deliberately blind, to the redistribution of wealth to the wealthiest Americans that has been occurring in the last 30 years. All of the income and wealth statistics and trends show this. Deliberately concentrating wealth in the hands of just a few stifles competition, discourages entrepreneurship, and dries up credit.
I sincerely hope that one day you’ll get serious about developing fair government policies that benefit the many, not just the few who can afford the lobbyist and campaign contributions to bought-and-paid for poli-ticks from both parties.
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