It’s Obvious Who’s Really Selfish Here

Before the White House and Congress agreed on the principles of a budget package, estate tax relief was among the many subjects in dispute. Under current law, the estate tax on people’s savings and net worth built over a lifetime of hard work and discipline begins at 37% and rises rapidly to 55%.

This cruel “death tax” falls hardest on farmers, ranchers and entrepreneurs who wish to pass their family businesses on to the next generation. Time after time children either have had to sell off the land or the business merely to pay these outrageous taxes or go deeply into debt to continue the family tradition. Moms and dads who want to leave a lifetime of sweat equity to their kids are coerced by our tax system into placing a massive financial millstone around the necks of the next generation.

It’s times like this when average folks can be grateful for electing a Republican Congress, which articulated the unfairness of the death tax and brought along a handful of Democrats who evidently nudged Bill Clinton in the right direction. Thus, the new budget agreement contains an increase in the amount exempted from this distasteful levy.

But the administration’s instincts originally were reflected more truly by its deputy treasury secretary, Lawrence H. Summers. In the midst of the back and forth of the budget debate last month, Summers claimed the argument by proponents of estate tax repeal was “about as bad as it gets.” He added this clincher: “When it comes to the estate tax, there is no case other than selfishness.”

Two days later, Summers whimpered out an apology after he had been blasted by Newt Gingrich and taken to the woodshed by the Clintonistas. But Summers reflected a predominant view of liberals who wallow eagerly in the rhetoric of class warfare and view with socialist passion the opportunity to confiscate another’s wealth. Bereft of real arguments, the left uses the word “rich” as political trash talk--its favored knee-jerk outburst whenever tax debates emerge.

When the state takes your prosperity and spends it in the fashion it chooses, liberals call it good government. But when you want to keep a fair share of what you lawfully earned, it’s called “selfishness.”

In the case of the death tax, the soak-the-successful crowd claims that this corrupt taking of wealth is fair because it affects only 1.5% of the population. Excuse me, but that’s precisely what makes it unfair. The Claremont Institute’s Bruce Herschensohn rightly notes that discriminating against a minority on the basis of net worth or income is as insidious as any other form of bigotry. Accepting that odious argument would justify punishing any other group which doesn’t exceed the threshold of 1.5%.

What kind of country have we become when those who create growth, hire employees, and purchase goods and services in greater numbers are marked with the scarlet letter “S” for selfishness? This lust for political gain through the wedge of social envy is the pathetic mark of a failed ideology.

What drives this insipid illogic? Write down these words: Government Greed.

It’s government greed that shapes the insatiable appetite of the state to absorb and spend what we earn. It’s the notion that elected officials and unelected bureaucrats have superior understanding of how to dispose of the rewards of toil and endeavor. For them there is never enough. Government greed goes far beyond the mere provision of adequate services to build a better nation. Why else, as the Heritage Foundation calculated, can a single dollar of income be taxed as many as four times counting the corporate income tax, the personal income tax, the capital gains tax and--finally and most grimly--death? And those are only federal taxes.

It would be nice if Bill Clinton’s bridge to the 21st century included an effort by the preachers of consumptive government to build a bridge to the citizens who work hard, play by the rules, and try to make a better life for themselves. And when this land of opportunity has rewarded families with the gift of achievement, these Americans deserve something better than the epithet of selfishness.