New York Times Takes Stand Against Estate Tax Repeal

An editorial in today’s (June 6, 2006) New York Times entitled The Estate Tax, Back on the Agenda concludes that there is “no moral justification for cutting estate taxes” much less making the upcoming repeal permanent.

Here are a few excerpts from the editorial:

There is no economic justification for [cutting the estate tax], any more than any tax cut can be justified when the economy is growing and the government is running a big deficit, as is now the case. The notion that small businesses and family farms are unfairly targeted by the estate tax is nonsense.

* * * Much of the wealth taxed after death has never been taxed because profits on stocks, bonds, real estate, artwork — you name it — are not taxed until an asset is sold. * * *

And yet, some multimillionaires, and their Congressional supporters, have the gall to say that the wealthy should not be “penalized.” Estate taxes imposed after one’s death are no more of a penalty than income taxes withheld from paychecks.