The United States House of Representatives ignored the White House veto threat and passed legislation that would repeal the estate tax on Thursday. It passed with a partisan 240-179 vote, and was backed by Republicans.
Apparently, repealing the Paris Hilton Tax is something that desperately needs to be done. Right now, it only applies to inherited assets worth $5.4 million or more, not your Teabilly uncle’s double-wide, but listening to them talk, you wouldn’t think that.
Republican Georgia Representative Tom Graves said of the repeal, “It’s past time to repeal this unacceptable tax. Every American deserves the ability to pass their life’s savings to their kids.”
That’s right; everyone loves Paris Hilton, Perez Hilton, and Kim Kardashian, right? They worked so hard for their fortune. It’s time to get rid of the Paris Hilton Tax once and for all. Those 5,400 estates, or 0.2% of taxpayers, need this relief. These are desperate times; they might be forced to sell that second home.
And you wouldn’t want them second homeless, would you? Then they’d be stuck with just one home, and what kind of monster does that to aristocrats? They’re sensitive souls, the vast majority of whom don’t even work for an honest wage, but instead live off their investments and government handouts.
Reuters notes that repealing the tax would boost the federal deficit by $269 billion over 10 years, so the deficit hawks are all over this unacceptable government handout, right? Right? Buller?
Even if it does pass the Senate, Obama has threatened a veto, and the Senate needs a two-thirds majority it doesn’t have in order to override said veto.
The timing, of course, is intentional. It’s tax season, and conservatives have railed against the Paris Hilton tax for a long time, because in their mystical world, it hurts “the families of small business owners and farmers.”
Small business owners and farmers with a total inheritable wealth of $5.4 million or more.
It’s darkly amusing how the Republicans have managed to convince the poor SOBs who vote for them that they’re actually rich. It reminds me of a quote:
Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
Temporarily embarrassed millionaires who are born temporarily embarrassed and die temporarily embarrassed.
