Democrats' War on Home Business
December 07, 2009
Democrats' War on Home Business
By Bruce Walker
On December 3rd, the House of Representatives passed House Resolution 4154, which is deceptively called the "Permanent Estate Tax Relief Act." This bill is part of the general war by the Democratic Party on self-employed Americans, family farms, and home businesses. Does this sound extreme? Consider the vote on the message: 225 Democrats voted for HR 4154, 26 against, and not a single Republican voted for it. No RINOs could be persuaded to support Congressman Pomeroy's attempt to freeze the estate tax emption level at $3.5 million and then tax all estate assets above that level at the exorbitant rate of 45%. How did House Democrats vote? Ninety percent of the Democrats voting on the message supported it, including many Blue Dog Democrats. As Republicans begin the process of drawing clear yellow lines between their party and the Democrat Party, HR 4154 is a perfect case study of those real philosophical differences.
The federal estate tax rate of 45% on estates in excess of $3.5 million is almost confiscatory. The consequence of federal estate taxes in this range is that when death claims the owner of a modestly successful small family business, the business itself is forced either to go under or go public by issuing stock. Given the limp condition of today's stock market and the small size of these businesses, the latter option means taking a huge economic loss. It also means that more and more of the traditional family farms, whose nominal value is inflated by an explosion of federal expenditures, will be pushed into the punitive tax rate, and on the death of an owner, they will likely be forced to sell.
more here : http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/..._business.html
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Originally Posted by CarlaL48
