Republican Leadership Should Abandon Plans to Extend Huge Tax Breaks for the Wealthy Through the Estate Tax

Republican Leadership Should Abandon Plans to Extend Huge Tax Breaks for the Wealthy Through the Estate Tax
9/14/2005

Washington D.C.-Congressman Bernie Sanders today called on the Republican leadership to abandon plans to extend huge tax breaks for the wealthy through the repeal of the estate tax. The Republican proposal would benefit only the richest 2% of the nation's families and half of the benefits would go to the wealthiest 0.1% of families. Sanders believes that at a time when we have a record breaking national debt and tens of billions of dollars are being spent on hurricane relief and Iraq, it would be absolutely irresponsible to give huge tax breaks to the richest families in the country and drive the national debt even higher.

"At a time when our country already has an $8 trillion national debt and when we're spending tens of billions on Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq, the Republican leadership should not go forward with more tax breaks for the very rich. Repealing the estate tax, which only benefits the wealthiest 2%, will add hundreds of billions to our national debt. That's wrong and irresponsible and I hope very much that the President and Republican leadership will rethink their position."

The House passed the estate tax repeal in April. Sanders voted against the repeal. The Senate version of the bill is still under consideration. If the Republican leadership moves forward with the legislation, the repeal would cost the federal government $982 billion over the next 20 years. This huge loss of revenue would drive up the national debt and likely lead to increased taxes on lower and middle-income workers and result in reduced funding for critical services.

http://bernie.house.gov/documents/releases/20050914143550.asp