Morning Bell: The Obama Tax Tsunami is Here

Conn Carroll / July 22, 2010

The American people are already well aware of President Barack Obama’s historic expansion of government spending: his $862 billion economic stimulus that has completely failed to keep unemployment below 8% as promised; his still-expanding health care law which the Congressional Budget Office now admits will cost more than $1 trillion; and an Obama budget that increases government spending by $12,000 per household. But all that spending is just the first half of President Obama’s game plan.

The second half of Obama’s attempted transformation began last night when the Senate rejected Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-SC) effort to end the Death Tax. This year is actually the first year since 1916 that Americans do not have to pay any federal taxes when a family member dies. But thanks to the way Congress had to pass the legislation that phased out the Death Tax in 2001, it is set to go from zero percent to 55 percent at the stroke of midnight on December 31, 2010. The Death Tax is but one of many government taxes on capital and entrepreneurship, and its reinstatement will be yet another job killer from the Obama administration. It rewards estate tax lawyers, insurance companies and big businesses at the expense of small family-owned enterprises. According to a study by the American Family Business Foundation, a full repeal of the death tax, like the one rejected by the Senate last night, would create 1.5 million jobs. Before the vote, Sen. DeMint described the tax as an “unfair, immoral double tax on property and assets that folks have already paid taxes on throughout their lives.” He added: “The Obama death tax is just the latest example of this administration’s assault on small businesses.” (more…)