Bill Statistics

The Middle Class Position

The middle class opposes.

How They Voted

55% with middle class
44% against middle class
1% did not vote
Pie Chart

Grades

Grade C
Senate

The Senate receives a grade of C for its support of the middle class on this piece of legislation.

55 Senators voted for the middle-class position; 44 voted against.

See how each member voted on this bill:

Senate

S.AMDT. 578 TO S.CON.RES. 21

Estate Tax Repeal Amendment of 2007

in
Introduced:
03.22.2007 [Senate]
Senate: Yea-44, Nay-55
Failed, not amended to S.Con.Res 21: 03.23.07
The Legislation: 

The Estate Tax Repeal Amendment permanently repeals the federal tax on “estates, gifts, and generation-skipping transfer tax provisions” valued at over $2 million (or $4 million for married couples). Currently, the estate tax imposes an incremental tax on the inherited assets of the wealthiest one percent of Americans, those with assets valued at over $2 million. Under current law, the estate tax is being gradually phased out and will disappear entirely by 2010, but will go back into effect in 2011 unless permanently repealed.

The Middle-Class Position: 

The Middle Class Opposes: The estate tax falls only on the small number of individuals lucky enough to inherit a windfall – less than one percent of Americans ever pay it at all. Nearly half of all estate taxes collected by the government are paid by the most affluent 0.1% of Americans. In this way, the estate tax continues America’s long tradition of honoring hard work and opportunity, rather than inherited privilege and wealth. But by abolishing the estate tax, this amendment would deprive the public of hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenue. In effect, estate tax repeal shifts more of the cost of public services onto middle-class and aspiring middle-class families, allowing accumulated wealth to be passed on for generations while obliging those who work for their money to either pick up a bigger share of the tax bill, or suffer cuts in services essential to middle-class families and communities.

From the Experts: 

“We had fought a revolution to reject hereditary political and economic power—and the dizzying inequalities of the Gilded Age violated a fundamental American ideal of equality of opportunity. We are now in a second Gilded Age...We’re heading backward to the wealth inequalities of a century ago. We need to preserve the estate tax in states and at the federal level for exactly the reason it is under assault. In a democracy, we should be offended when the power of concentrated wealth brazenly attempts to shape the terms of policy debate and dictate the rules of our society.” —William H. Gates, Sr. and Chuck Collins, authors, Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes

“[The estate] tax applies only to the children who receive the money, rather than the parent who built up the estate.. Estate tax repeal is… the Paris Hilton Benefit Act.” —Michael Graetz, Professor of Law, Yale University (March 24, 2005)

Beyond this Bill: 

While Congress decisively rejected this amendment, well-funded opposition to the estate tax ensures that efforts to abolish it will continue to crop up year after year. For this reason, legislators should not only oppose this legislation but reclaim the debate about the so-called “death tax” from wealthy interests bent on its elimination. While in reality 99 percent of Americans will never pay any estate tax, polls suggest about half of Americans nevertheless believes that “most families have to pay the federal estate tax someone dies.” The public needs to be more educated about the reality of the estate tax and its role in our economy.

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