MOsanthrope

Posted by Chris on April 28, 2006 at 1:08 pm.

If you’re a middle-class American with a surname like “Smith,” you should probably not hold your breath while waiting for the Republican Congress to enact meaningful healthcare, education or lobbying reform.

On the other hand, if you’re one of a select few who descend from a line named “Nordstrom” or “Walton,” you enjoy the best representation money can buy:

Eighteen families, including the owners of Nordstrom Inc., The Seattle Times Co., Mars Inc., Koch Industries Inc. and Wal-Mart Inc., that stand to save $71.6 billion in taxes are financing lobbying efforts to repeal the estate tax, according to a study by two groups.

Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy, which want to see estate tax rates increased to as high as 60 percent, said the families perpetrated a fraud on ordinary Americans by saying the levy constitutes an unfair “death tax.” Only about 0.25 percent of Americans who die this year will leave an estate large enough to be taxed, the groups said.

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The groups estimated the 18 families have spent as much as $500 million on lobbying efforts since 1994.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has vowed a vote on the issue next month after postponing consideration of a bill to permanently abolish the tax after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Republicans said they were worried about creating the perception they were cutting taxes for wealthy families while storm survivors struggled.

Perhaps when Abraham Lincoln spoke of “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” he might have been more clear about which people.

Filed under: Politics, U.S.