take19 - TAKEN!!!

Every week, it seems, Sue Kelly does her darndest to provide more benefits for the very wealthy. The latest Kelly offering to the upper upper upper class is her vote to deeply cut the Estate Tax, commonly referred to as the "Paris Hilton Tax." Now, while these extremely well off families will benefit greatly from Sue's gift, just who do you think will be paying for it? That's right, the middle class will be forced to carry this burden on our shoulders. Over the next ten years this tax cut for the rich will reduce federal revenues by $284 billion. Given the modus operandi of the Republican leadership in Congress, the decreased revenues will likely be made up for by even more cuts to Student Loan Programs, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Programs, Homeland Security, etc. Also, included in this gift to the wealthiest families is a $900 million tax cut for timber companies. This giveaway to big business was added to the bill for the purpose of buying the votes of Senators from timber producing states who have been opposed to repeal of the Estate Tax. That is how the Republican-led congress works folks, and they are using your tax dollars to bribe other members of congress to give away the farm to the wealthy and big-business.

Some facts about the "Paris Hilton Tax." Under current legislation, only 12,600 estates will be subject to the tax this year (that's less than 1% of those who pass away). Under the new Republican legislation that number will be reduced to only 2,800 and the tax rate on those will be cut from 45% to as low as 15%. These tax cuts for the wealthy will cost the federal government $284 billion over the next ten years. That means less revenues for a federal budget that is suffering from record smashing deficits.

Now you may be wondering just who is behind the multi-million dollar campaign to repeal the "Paris Hilton Tax", well it didn't take long to research that information and no surprise here, the answer is the extremely wealthy families that will benefit directly from the repeal of the Estate Tax. Eighteen families worth a total of $185.5 billion have spent millions in campaign contributions to buy votes as well as funding attack ads against politicians who oppose their efforts. Not surprisingly, our own congresswoman Sue Kelly has decided to side with these 18 incredibly rich families and voted to provide them with billions of dollars in tax cuts.