JANE BRYANT QUINN—Dodging Heavy Flak Attack Over Support of Estate Tax

0

As promised, President Clinton vetoed the bill that would have phased out the federal estate tax over the next 10 years. Congress tried and failed to override the veto.

So for now, the estate tax remains unchanged.

There were enough votes for a compromise, exempting the “little rich,” with estates up to $4 million or so. But Congress wasn’t interested. They want to end taxes for the “big rich” saving $105 billion for America’s wealthiest people.

Last month, I wrote a column opposing total repeal. Tax cuts for the heirs of America’s super-rich don’t strike me as the country’s first priority today. Other tax cuts and social issues should be taking center stage.

Estate taxes were lowered as recently as 1997. The first $675,000 of your net worth currently passes estate-tax free. By 2006, you’ll be able to pass up to $1 million (double that for married couples). Farmers and small-business people can pass even more.

Not surprisingly, readers in these brackets are burying me with angry letters. (Suggestion: write to Congress, too, asking why it wouldn’t compromise.)

I’ll summarize their main arguments and respond. But first, my thanks to those of you who argued only ideas. Even when you disagreed in capital letters, you recognized that there are other views.

I semi-thank those who disagreed in a personal way, as long as you signed your name. Maybe I’m a “moron,” “retarded,” “live in a cardboard box,” or whatever. But, like me, you at least put your name to your opinion.

Then there are the cowards who write obscenely and don’t sign their names. I rarely get letters of this sort. But on this issue, the haters turned out, big time. Some people really shouldn’t have money. It brings out the worst in them.

Your arguments against me fall into five broad categories:

– The first argument: “I (or my parents) started out poor, worked long hours, raised children, saved money, drove older cars and took fewer vacations than others did. Why should I be taxed on the fruits of my labor?”

But most Americans can be described this way. If working hard, raising children, saving money and driving older cars are the criteria for tax cuts, almost everyone qualifies. Why repeal the estate tax first?

A subset of this argument is that taxing estates “punishes success.” (I hear this more from people who drive new cars, and take better vacations.)

But who says that success is measured only by money? And who defines financial success as entering the estate-tax bracket? When a hard-working man earning $50,000 gets a new job paying $10,000 more, his additional income is taxable. Does that “punish success”?

Those words are a slogan, not an argument. And I’m sorry to say it, but some of you think that anyone not worth $1 million hasn’t been working hard enough.

– The second argument: “I don’t want the rotten government to take any more of my money.” You speak as if the government was an alien from Mars.

What governments do is raise tax money and recycle it back to you, in the form of veterans’ benefits, national security, student aid, highways, medical research, law enforcement, meat inspection, long-term care, national parks and the interest you earn on Treasury bills.

The government also protects the legal framework that allows business to prosper things like honest markets and property rights. Just try living without a government. It’s not paradise; it’s Kosovo or Somalia.

A few of you (not many) railed about having your tax money spent on the poor. Let me clue you in. Hardly any of it is.

– The third argument: “My money has been taxed before, it shouldn’t be taxed again.” In fact, much of the money on which estate taxes are due hasn’t been taxed before. It’s capital gains, which are not taxed at death.

– The fourth argument: “I’m not rich. A million dollars doesn’t mean anything today.” Hmmm. It would mean a lot to the 98 percent of Americans who don’t have it.

– The fifth argument: “You, Quinn, were born with a silver spoon” or “you’re a slacker and jealous of the rich.”

For the record, I’m much like most of you who wrote. I work hard, run my own business, raised my children, made my own luck, have only what I personally saved, pay taxes in the highest bracket and will owe estate taxes, too.

I also believe that those who have prospered the most in this wonderful country owe it the most support.

Syndicated columnist Jane Bryant Quinn can be reached in care of the Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St., Washington, D.C. 20071-9200.

No posts to display