Conservative Republicans have attempted to abolish the estate tax since the 1940s, so it’s easy to forget that its modern champion was Theodore Roosevelt, a president the GOP used to deem amongst the greatest the party has produced. In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt promoted estate taxes. In 1916, eight years after Roosevelt left office, Congress integrated a levy on estates into the tax code. Roosevelt believed that a wealthy individual owes an obligation to the state “because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.”
See Tim Rutten, And the Rich Get Richer, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 18, 2010.
Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this to my attention.
