And the rich get richer

In a recently published editorial, USA Today referred to Republican efforts to undermine the estate tax as misleading and inaccurate; they also describe these efforts as a blatant attack on the middle class. Only 1 percent of all Americans, with estates worth many millions of dollars, pay this tax, and that 1 percent represents the corporate and political elite of this country.

Despite scary (and blatantly untrue) Republican propaganda, the Census Bureau reports that not one family farm or business has ever been shut down by having to pay the estate tax. It is interesting to see who benefits from repealing this tax. The Washington Post showed that repealing the estate tax would save President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and 11 of their cabinet members, all extremely wealthy individuals, a total of $344 milllion. Repealing the estate tax will create a new class of super-rich Americans, and the middle class will have to pay the $1 trillion that this move will cost our one-democratic country over the next 10 years.

I was once a middle-class Republican. I will forever be a member of the middle class, but will never call myself a Republican again.

Floyd Bonheur

Spokane, WA

The Spokesman Review