So why does Bush prefer wealthy dead people over the middle class?

[LynneSin]

He's all gung-ho to repeal the death tax which mainly affects weathier people and yet repukes are gung-ho to repeal the one thing that helps working class folks get into home ownership: Limiting the tax breaks of home ownership.

Repealing this tax cut will devestate the middle class not only with home ownership but anything and everything associated with building a house even to remodelling one. Obviously the incentive will take away the market appeal for first-time buyers thus reducing the market. With less buyers out there, it will be harder for owners to sell their homes and take away the market (and jobs) for new home builders. Taking away the deduction means less money in middle class pocketbooks which means less money spent for household goods and other new purchases thus hurting that industry.

Death Tax only affects those estates over a certain bracket which I know is an area that will not affect my family or most working/middle class families.

This is an insult to us and we need to fight this tooth & nail. Anyone who supports this bill should be outed from office because they too are showing no support for working/middle class families.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051102/NEWS/511020324/1006

Tax plan could drop home values 15%
Proposal called a 'gut shot to the American middle class'

HOW PROPERTY VALUES WOULD FALL

• Recommended tax reform proposal would limit deductions for home mortgage interest and eliminate the deduction for property taxes.

• Real estate officials say fewer prospective homeowners -- especially those who do not plan to own a property more than a couple of years -- would be in the market to buy.

• Industry experts predict that would cool off the housing market, causing home values to drop 15 percent.

By MAUREEN MILFORD
The News Journal
11/02/2005

Tax reform proposals released Tuesday that recommend limiting the tax breaks homeowners now enjoy could lower home values by 15 percent, according to real estate industry experts.

The National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders -- both powerful lobbying groups -- have moved into battle mode, saying the plans put forth by President Bush's tax reform panel would have a devastating effect on the nation's housing market. The proposal would curtail deductions for home mortgage interest and eliminate the deduction for property taxes.

Jerry Howard, chief executive of the home builders association, said the builders plan to "put up a huge fight" to stop the changes affecting homeownership. He called the recommendations "a gut shot to the American middle class." Crystal Baynard-Norman of Wilmington, a small-business owner who has been considering buying a house in the Middletown area, agreed.


<<<<<snip>>>>>>

Yun warned of a political backlash, since about 69 percent of American households own their own homes, he said.

"Any elected official who tinkers with 70 percent of the nations' households will suffer the consequences," Yun said. "One reason we're publicizing this is because we don't want this to go under the radar. We want to make homeowners fully aware of the impact of this kind of tax reform."

[murielm99]

1. It's not the death tax.

It's the Paris Hilton tax.

[cornermouse]

2. Bush doesn't associate with the middle class.

I suspect that if you were to get him to talk to you candidly, you would find out that he has never really met any of us, has no idea what we are like, and doesn't want to know. Push that public image to the side and you'll find a lifetime limo-type person underneath.

[Lindsay]

3. I remember reading somewhere that Poppy Bush

thinks the lower classes (i.e., anyone not filthy stinking rich) should not be able to own houses.

I'm guessing Junior hasn't fallen far from that tree.

[wakeme2008]

4. Follow the MONEY...

Bush SENIOR IMHO is now worth 300-500 million. And who gets a lot of that when he and Babs kicks the bucket.

[zbdent]

5. The "death tax" is the inheritance tax

which means that people who have expected to do nothing but live off their inheritance should not have to pay anything.

I wonder how many people really would have been affected by the inheritance tax minimum of about $2 million or so. Not a lot of "inner city" folk, I'd bet . . . and don't get into insurance checks or court awards. Non-taxable.

[JHB]

6. Classic American Divide: small family farms vs. plantation owners...

...local small- and medium-business vs. corporate multinationals.

Yeomen and townsfolk vs the lords of the manor.

It's not about dead people, it's about power, and who has it.

[tokenlib]

7. Let's call it the Estate Tax....

The republicans and Fox news have worked long and hard to rename it "the death tax" so the masses will imagine it might apply to them or be unfair. To call it the Estate Tax annoyed them because it put the focus on the affluent and bloated--to prevent the establishment of an American aristocracy as Teddy Roosevelt said.

[LibDemAlways]

8. On CBS Evening News last night the

reporter talking about the proposal to do away with the mortgage deduction claimed it would hurt wealthiest Americans the most. Another big lie. Seems to me the wealthiest Americans don't sweat a mortgage payment every month the way the guy does who has scrimped and saved to get into a place and is counting on that deduction and his property tax deduction to lower his income taxes. Millions of ordinary Americans would be seriously pissed.

I don't think the repukes are dumb enough to seriously pursue this. They have to keep enough people voting for them to make sure elections are close enough to steal.