The Nation's Pulse
Coffin Up the Taxes
Has the wonderful Art Linkletter outlived the death tax?
As 2009 limped into its final days, I found myself scanning the Arts & Letters section, plus all the celebrity links on the Net, hoping not to find Art Linkletter. Sure enough, the plucky raconteur, age 97.5 and counting, watched the I drop out of MMIX without losing his place. He still walks in the land of the living, as he promised in 2001 on the Rush Limbaugh show.
Back then, the Congress (yes, Virginia, there was once a Republican Congress) was enacting a bill as deeply unpopular in Washington as it was popular in the rest of the country. You see, once upon a time the government had merged the certainty of death and taxes by fashioning the death tax. The Republicans passed a slow-motion repeal which eliminated this levy by 2010.
At that time, Linkletter, on the threshold of his 90th birthday, assured the audience he would endure into 2010 to keep Uncle Sam’s grubby mitts off his estate. My skeptical contemporaneous response is hereby withdrawn retroactively.
This tax was euphemistically dubbed the estate tax by its proponents for many years, so opponents countered with the dysphemistic strategy of labeling it the death tax. This approach sort of worked and the rollback was passed. But in a species of insanity endemic to D.C., the law expires after ten years, meaning the tax returns in 2011. This is known in political parlance as a law with a sunset. If this drama had a musical score, “If I Were a Rich Man” would precede “Sunrise, Sunset” on the play list.
The New York Times and Washington Post, standard-bearers of more-for-the-government-less-for-the-people democracy, have already editorialized against this anomaly of one year when the legacy of a lifetime can be bequeathed as a legacy. They insist the Senate rise to its moral duty of changing the law in mid-2010 to close this loophole in the circle of life.
Of all the mulcts milked by leftists over the years, this one is easily the most offensive. You pay your taxes as you earn your money, as you spend it, as you invest it, and as you dwell in the property it may purchase. Yet after all that, the transfer to heirs is viewed as such a privilege rather than a right that a majority (generally 55 percent) must be confiscated by the government for the general welfare.
Throughout history, people of character worked mostly for the sake of their children. “When will I also do something for my family?” is the question Jacob asks in Genesis (30:30) after working for years on salary without the chance to build savings. A man had not lived a complete life if he had to leave this earth without leaving a piece of it for his offspring. Which explains the etymology of the word “patrimony” in case you were wondering.
Cutting, or significantly attenuating, the link between each generation and its posterity debilitates one of the civilizing structures of society. Giving parents incentives to take care of children and giving children incentives to be considerate to parents supports a vibrant polity. Giving the occupants of the present a stake in the development of the future is a powerful guarantor of productivity and progress.
It becomes apparent here, as in so many areas, that the left does not see the accumulation of wealth by individuals as a virtue. Although human nature shows the desire for such accumulation to be the engine of job creation and technological advancement, it is deemed so offensive by these secular moralists that society-wide poverty is preferable. The noble savage is an ideal for which they are prepared to savage the noble.
My hope is that the Senate will be impeded from canceling this tax holiday. They will not let us live free anyway, piling on layers of intrusive mandates without limit and limits without mandate; let us at least die free. The law should be rendered permanent and the tax repealed forever, but these patricians will not brook our patrimony. Still, for one year, a year that slipped between the cracks, it would be nice to see a little sliver of light, a glint of justice, a flash of freedom.
As to Mister Linkletter, may he live to 120 (a Jewish blessing, based on the life of Moses) and enjoy the prosperity he earned.
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
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Ret. Marine| 1.5.10 @ 7:15AM
Ahh yes, nothing is certian but death and taxes. Well the way they think anyway. I'm one of these people that think it is the politicians who need to be taxed 100% of all their earnings, savings, estates and any hidden moneys they think is untocuhable. Serves them right. and I ask how does one get to the status of a millionaire on the salary of $165,000.00 annualy. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the armpits of the pretender-n-theif, the lib's and especially the critters claiming to represent We the People. They represent the lobbyist, not We as in me, or you, or any one else for that matter.
I guess they won't be happy til we all are on poverty row. and I wont be happy til I see them in jail cells where they belong.
Bruce | 1.5.10 @ 10:10AM
A better question, Marine, might be ... what impels someone to SPEND millions to get a job that pays but $170k per year? Most assuredly it's sense the vaunted "sense of public duty" they spew. Do they really think the public is blind to the benefits, kickbacks, under the table deals these dirtbags propagate that turns them into millionaires?
Apparently - and we don't hold them to account, either.
Tom| 1.5.10 @ 11:44AM
I'm with you, Marine. Always a pleasure.
Semper Fi!
WRTolkas| 1.5.10 @ 7:34AM
Dear Ret. Marine,
When the American people finally have had enough and the revolution does come, I'd like to team up with you.
I'm retired Army, I hope that is acceptable.
Best regards for a New Year and on to the elections,
WRTolkas
Ret. Marine| 1.5.10 @ 8:52PM
Perfectly accaptable with me. I'll give you a hint, a town named after our original selfless servent, same county name as well in Ks. Militia-Commander, code name: Jawbreaker
explosion proof flood light | 11.25.10 @ 1:34AM
That's the way it went in the U.S. for decades. People in poor communities were convinced that the police and justice system didn't give a hang about crime in their neighborhoods.
Alan Brooks| 1.5.10 @ 8:32AM
You are rightwing paranoids, not conservatives.
But I want you to find out the hard way. When Obama is reelected you will know you are the chumps, as you were in '92, '96. and '08.
When you take your eyes off the ball too much, you strike out.
Tom| 1.5.10 @ 11:41AM
Alan, what is it about individual liberty and freedom that you are afraid of? It is the ball many of us who have served this country ALWAYS have our eye on. 233 years ago, Americans threw off an oppressive king. Why do we now have to revert to an oppressive government which wants to enslave our grandchildren with trillions in debt. Slavery and debt are almost the same thing.
Semper Fidelis
Alan Brooks| 1.5.10 @ 12:31PM
then please DO NOT run Bushes, Doles, and McCains.
You have met the enemy-- look in the mirror.
L. Ross| 1.5.10 @ 2:06PM
Bushes weren't great, but I could not agree more about "Bob Dole" and McCain. I think there is a special place in hell for John McCain.
Ret. Marine| 1.5.10 @ 8:49PM
Is this the best you can do there Mr. Brooks. I always thought the idea was to converse about ideas and problems we face together. So it comes down to name calling, you know the old saying dont' you" sticks and stones may brake my bones, but I'm older and wiser now, never bring a knife to a gun fight."
One-Y| 1.5.10 @ 8:39AM
Oy Tolkas,you are a brother in arms,no apology please. I thank you nad Ret.Marine for service to this great country of ours.Meanwhile,please team up with the aforementioned,teach him to use his keyboard,and then to correct his typos. I love the philosophy and attitude. Semper Fidelis.
Alan Brooks| 1.5.10 @ 1:46PM
" I thank you nad "
learn how to use your keyboard, and (not "nad") take the mote out of your eye..
Stammon| 1.5.10 @ 8:16PM
Alright Alan, why don't you shut up. Some of us have fingers that don't work so well anymore. They're stiff, they shake, and still we try to use them. We may be old, but I bet I could take you, but I wouldn't: you see, I was raised to be polite to elders and idiots.
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Mike| 1.5.10 @ 10:43AM
Mr Brooks
Does that make you a chump in '68, '72, '80, '84, '88, 2000 and 2004?
Just because your paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you!
Mike Johnston
SFC USA (RET)
Alan Brooks| 1.5.10 @ 1:41PM
You are evading the issue. Since the Cold War the GOP has been clueless.
'68, '84, '88, are ancient history. '72 a psychopath was re-elected-- resulting in Carter's hideous presidency four years later.
Alan Brooks| 1.5.10 @ 1:50PM
... what is mystifying is with all the competent-- Kemp having been one example-- Republicans in America, why did you follow Reagan up with mediocrities?
What WERE you thinking.
oldpapajoe| 1.5.10 @ 2:10PM
I just love it when liberals comment on The American Spectator--as if they really care about Conservative issues. But, Alan Brooks does have a point. How in the heck did we wind up with a loser like John "McLame" McCain?
Ret. Marine| 1.5.10 @ 8:59PM
It was real simple really, you see We the People knew both were the same, only difference was they would take a different track to get there. Personally I believe the Repukeagain Party held him up for the American People to get their attention. obummer and his crew as certainly giving lesson galore to the masses don't you think, the lesson is never trust a black nationalist/marxist/communist pig with any responsibility. They are sure as hell meant to prove us right.
victor| 1.5.10 @ 9:48PM
Actually, McCain was selected by the left, notably by Marcos Moussaka, in the open primaries and we were not paying attention.
The primaries are where we need to get the Conservatives out to vote for other Conservatives.
Here's two:
http://allenwestforcongress.com/
http://www.brownforussenate.com/splash
There are more like these guys in every state.
SpiralArchitect | 1.5.10 @ 10:56PM
Excellent Point.
This is a Representative Democracy Sans the Representation.
So Sad.
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Ken (Old Texican)| 1.5.10 @ 5:49PM
Oldpapajoe
Welcome!
Honestly, the only Republican candidate I could have gone to the mat for was Fred Thompson.
The rest of them had serious drawbacks as far as I was concerned. McDoofus did do one splendid thing though. He introduced us to Sarah Palin.
Sa what you will, she will help a lot of common sense conservatives get elected in November. She can give just about anyone HUGE name recognition by a simple facebook endorsement. I think of NY district 23 as an example.
No, I think we earned Obama for our past sins. We really did...and are having to learn by contrast... the hard way....as always.
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