Smithers MINNEAPOLIS

Me and the Anti-Strib crew have been debating the Estate Tax today.

My thought is, with added advantages comes added responsibility.

Only 2% of Americans who die have their estates affected by this tax. That means that the children who get this sizable inheritance have a financial ‘leg up’ on the other 98% of their peers. These children have done nothing more than happen to be lucky enough to have very wealthy parents.

I am not asking that this 2% completely give up their inheritance. All I am asking, as I state in my post on Anti-Strib, is that they contribute some back to the government, really the citizens of this country, that paid for the freedom and protection required in order to make that sizable inheritance in the first place.

It really does seems like a fair trade off to me.

Calling all science freaks! Do you like science? Do you like to answer scientific questions? Here’s a doozy for you!

I like to make banana bread. When the bread is done cooking and cooled I put it under a pan with two piece of regular bread to keep the banana bread moist.

How does the banana bread know to take the moisture out of the regular bread instead of the regular bread taking the moisture out of the banana bread?

I have always done this and it always works and today I was just wondering why. It’s a real mystery to me how the world works sometimes…

Rich Lowry NRO:

The GOP now craves such bipartisan cover in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Republicans trumpet every Democratic connection to Abramoff in the hope that something resonates…It is true that any Washington influence peddler is going to spread cash and favors as widely as possible, and 210 members of Congress have received Abramoff-connected dollars. But this is, in its essence, a Republican scandal, and any attempt to portray it otherwise is a misdirection.

When National Review calls it a Republican scandal, it’s a Republican scandal…

I define rich by saying it is what you are and I am not. See how easy that is?

Rush Limbaugh has a section on his website that states “Only The Rich Pay Taxes!” He states, accurately, that 96.03% of all Income Tax collected by the IRS is paid by the top 50% of wage earners in the United States. However, Limbaugh’s statement that only the rich pay taxes is only accurate if you believe that the top 50% of wage earners in the United States are rich.

In the year 2001, the 50% cut off was at $28,528. Those individuals or couples filing jointly that made $28,528 or more a year are were the top 50% and those that made less than $28,528 a year were in the bottom 50%. So according to Limbaugh, anyone making more than $28,528 per year in 2001 was “rich”.

I guess I am not quite a generous as that.

Did you know that in 2001 the top 1% of wage earners in the USA paid 34% of all income tax? This includes everyone who made over $292,913 per year. Is that rich? I still don’t think so.

The top 1% also included:

Henry Silverman, CEO – Cendant Corporation, salary $35,870,000 per year
Sumner Redstone , CEO – Viacom Incorporated, salary $46,619,000 per year
Douglas Daft, CEO – Coca-Cola Corporation, salary $61,243,000 per year
John Chambers, CEO – Cisco Systems Incorporated, salary $87,250,000 per year
Sanford Weill, CEO – Citigroup Incorporated, salary $98,053,000 per year
Steven Jobs, CEO – Apple Computer Incorporated, salary $218,896,000 per year

Are those guys rich? Yea, I believe they are.

So what are politicians talking about when they say they want to tax the rich? I don’t know. They are most likely trying to generate political support among the poor and middle class.

Is it good to have only the wealthy pay for the government? Of course not, and it is absolutely not the case currently. In 2001 47% of all income tax collected was paid by those making less than $127,904 per year.

But should those making in excess of $10,000,000 per year pay a higher percentage of income tax than someone making $28,528 per year. Yea, I think that they should.