Ezra Klein - An estate tax primer
It’s important to keep in mind the cramped space of this debate: If the tax goes back to its scheduled levels, it’ll tax 2 percent of estates, If the Lincoln-Kyl levels are put in place, it’ll tax 0.25 percent of estates. But the difference between the hundreds of billions the tax could raise and the miniscule number of estates it would affect explains the immense energy Republicans and some Democrats (notably Blanche Lincoln, who has traditionally raked in campaign money from the Walton family) give to the issue. In a report called “Spending Millions to Save Billions,” Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy estimated that a handful of the country’s richest families had spent more than $400 million lobbying for the tax’s repeal — and of they were successful, they stood to save more than $70 billion.
I am a liberal-minded homeschool mom who is constantly trying to find that elusive state of balance in my life while enjoying my two energetic, yet vastly different boys.