March 27^th

Our conservative de jour is Phil Kerpen. His message today is a call to repeal the inheritance tax but like the good conservative he is he calls it the “Death Tax.”

He tells us that 61 percent of the public support this tax’s repeal.  I’m surprised that it’s only 61 percent; how many would support the repeal of the gasoline tax, their state’s sales tax or whatever tax you might name? The estate tax will affect just .12 percent of all estates in this country; that’s about eight-tenths of one percent and that’s not very many. One reason is that the exemption is now well over 5 million dollars for an individual and close to 11 million dollars for a married couple.  A spouse can pass his estate to his wife or husband free of any estate tax. Then when the wife or husband dies there is an 11 million dollar exemption. That estate has to be more than 11 million dollars before any federal estate tax is owed. Of course this is for the federal estate tax, the states can have their say and right now some ten states have their own estate tax with exemptions much lower that the federal exemptions. Mr. Kerpen doesn’t touch that one, state’s rights you know.

He is also dead wrong about the federal estate tax. He claims, “We now have a tax on the books that takes up to 40 percent of everything a person leaves to his or her children as a punishment for success, for achieving the American dream.” That is, to put it inelegantly, “Horse Hockey.” As I pointed out above, not until the estate is worth nearly 11 million dollars is any estate tax owed. Kerpen must believe that there is no estate tax exemption or if he knows better he is quite simply lying.

He then cites a study that claims this tax is responsible for “the destruction of 1.1 trillion dollars of capital.” Apparently Kerpen believes that if you make the lie sufficiently outrageous people will believe it. The 1.1 trillion dollar figure he cites comes from “The Family Business Coalition.” They do not explain whether the “destruction” of these billions of dollars is the result of burning them in the streets, dumping them in the ocean or if this “destruction” is carried out in some more truly spectacular way!

Perhaps Kerpen himself deserves a closer look: A quick online search tells us that he has been very active in right wing organizations and now runs his very own as president of “American Commitment.” This group is organized as a 501 c 4 supposedly dedicated to social welfare. Hah! Really?  Openrecords.org has tried to check them out with little success because the money between this group and some others simply flies back and forth. As a 501 c 4 they cannot advocate for a candidate but they use wording that clearly shows which candidates they favor.

Mr. Kerpen is also an author: his book is titled “Democracy Denied: How Obama Is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America—and How to Stop Him.” This effort is available used on Amazon for one penny, perhaps because the original purchasers do not seem to want it in their libraries; even so I’d bet it’s still worth the purchase price.