Representative Vicky Hartzler (r), along with her congressional cohort, voted to repeal the estate tax.

Why are Republicans trying to repeal the estate tax? It’s their nature.

By Paul Waldman April 17 at 12:46 PM

Yesterday, the House voted to repeal the estate tax, apparently in the belief that the American public needed a reminder that the Republican Party is the party of the wealthy. I’ll get to why the arguments they make about this issue are either problematic or just factually wrong (depending on which argument you’re talking about), but as a political decision, holding this vote seems rather foolish….

….And what about those family farms Republicans are always talking about, the ones that are constantly being sold off to pay the estate taxes? They’re a myth. When The Post’s fact-checker Glenn Kessler was doing his estate tax fact check, he asked the office of John Thune, the sponsor of the Senate version of repeal, about the farms we keep hearing about. “Thune’s staff conceded that they could not identify a single farm that had been sold because of the estate tax, but they said some farms had to sell acreage in order to pay the tax.” Nobody else seems to be able to find one, either. You’ll notice that when Republicans talk about this, they always posit a hypothetical family farm being sold off and not “My constituents the Millers had to sell off their farm,” because the Millers are the equivalent of a unicorn. According to the Department of Agriculture, in 2013 only .6 percent – or 1 in 167 – of the estates of farmers who died owed any estate tax at all.

Because of that large exemption, currently at $5.43 million, the numbers for all estates are even smaller. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, “In 2013, the most recent year for which final numbers are available, there were 2.6 million deaths in the United States, and 4,700 estate tax returns reporting some tax liability were filed. Thus, taxable estate tax returns represented approximately one-fifth of one percent of deaths in 2013….”

Still, via Twitter, Representative Hartzler (r) was ever so proud of her intended vote:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Today the House votes to repeal the #DeathTax It kills jobs & hurts economy. It’s time to repeal. #DeathTaxRepeal 6:30 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Much hilarity ensued in some of the social media responses:

Fake Vicky Hartzler ‏@VickiHartzler

.@RepHartzler The only job the “death tax” might kill is the number of dog-sitters that Paris Hilton can afford to hire. 7:24 AM – 16 Apr 2015

SoDakian ‏@SoDakda

@VickiHartzler Since you put it that way, I guess I do feel pretty sorry for the Hilton dogs. 7:32 AM – 16 Apr 2015

B Yates ‏@OldDrum

@VickiHartzler @RepHartzler And, how do plan to replace the taxes we lose when the Sinquefield heirs pay no taxes on his estate? 7:39 AM – 16 Apr 2015

B Yates ‏@OldDrum

@VickiHartzler @RepHartzler What “family” business has been broken up by taxing the extremely wealthy? Just name one. 7:40 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Fake Vicky Hartzler ‏@VickiHartzler

@OldDrum @RepHartzler Uhhh, uuhhhhh, um, well, uh…….. 7:46 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Dan Webster ‏@RevWeb

@RepHartzler @SpeakerBoehner And it will just make the rich, richer. Really? When did you lose the concept of the common good? 8:07 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Ron Powell ‏@diogeron

@RepHartzler @SpeakerBoehner “Death tax” out of Orwell. <.05% pay estate tax. Only affects couples w >$10 million. Help the middle class 8:08 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Richard Badalamente ‏@Nimasema

@RepHartzler @SpeakerBoehner Only 0.2 percent of #VERYrich Americans will owe the tax in 2015. Stop widening #wealthgap. 8:16 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Linda ‏@SudokuG

@RepHartzler @SpeakerBoehner You do know that hardly anyone believes this, except for those who benefit by association with the rich? 8:17 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Fake Vicky Hartzler ‏@VickiHartzler

Won’t somebody think of the trust fund babies!!! If we don’t repeal the death tax, Paris Hilton will only have 6 homes! @RepHartzler 8:19 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Katherine Hull ‏@katspeek

@RepHartzler @SpeakerBoehner That’sWhatCreates TrustFundBabies & Future”New Money”Brats w/o ANY Aristocratic”Noblesse Oblige”Moral Guides 8:20 AM – 16 Apr 2015

David Bluefeather ‏@Plumazul

@RepHartzler so how many people paid an #estatetax last year? Why are you lying to the American People? @SpeakerBoehner #NeoFeudalism 8:21 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Fake Vicky Hartzler ‏@VickiHartzler

If we don’t repeal the death tax, @MittRomney’s sons may have to actually get jobs (firing people). @RepHartzler 8:34 AM – 16 Apr 2015

Interestingly, neither Paris Hilton nor Rex Sinquefield live in the district.

Over a decade ago in a somewhat jarring state legislative race in our area between a long time incumbent and a right wingnut challenger we observed the aftermath of large campaign sign vandalism. An acquaintance, he of a mathematics and computer science background, who also noticed the sign vandalism mentioned the spray painted message on the challenger’s sign by asking me, “What does big zero plus mean?” The typography of the spray painted tag wasn’t exactly evenly spaced. I replied that I thought the spray painting spelled out “bigot”. “Oh.”

We were both correct.

The Springfield, Missouri LGBT inclusive anti-discrimination ordinance was overturned by the voters in yesterday’s election by a very narrow margin:

SUMMARY REPORT                                    Greene County, Missouri

                                                 Municipal Election

                                                 April 7, 2015

RUN DATE:04/07/2015 08:40 PM

                                                                                             VOTES PERCENT

PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 78) .  .  .  .  .        78  100.00              

REGISTERED VOTERS – TOTAL .  .  .  .  .   172,016                      

BALLOTS CAST – TOTAL.  .  .  .  .  .  .    40,681                      

VOTER TURNOUT – TOTAL  .  .  .  .  .  .             23.65

[….]

City of Springfield Question 1

YES  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    15,347   51.43

NO.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    14,493   48.57

[emphasis added]

A “yes” vote was for repeal of the city ordinance.

Turnout was just under 24%. That, and the margin, ain’t exactly an overwhelming mandate for denying civil rights. Times are changing. That tiny margin will soon disappear.

This morning, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

A151124 04/08/2015 YES ON QUESTION 1 National Black Robe Regiment PO Box 397 Aledo TX 76008 3/31/2015 $14,978.64

A151124 04/08/2015 YES ON QUESTION 1 National Black Robe Regiment PO Box 397 Aledo TX 76008 4/7/2015 $19,700.00

[emphasis added]

Who?

A151124: Yes On Question 1

G10-A East Battlefield Pmb 109 Committee Type: Campaign

Spring Field Mo 65807

[….] Established Date: 04/06/2015

  Termination Date:

Treasurer

Mike Tull

610-A East Battlefield Pmb 109

Springfield Mo 65807

  [….]

Ballot Measure History

Ballot Measures Election Date Subject Support/Oppose

Question 1 04/07/2015 Shall The City Of Springfield Repeal General Ordinance No 6141 Adopted By City Council 10/13/14 That Amended Chapter 2 On Human Rights & Community Relations/City Of Springfield Support

[emphasis added]

What? The day before the election?

National Black Robe Regiment? That sounds like a group name from the past appropriated for other purposes by a modern day lunatic.

What we know about Beck’s Black Robe Regiment

August 30, 2010 5:29 PM EDT

FAE JENCKS

This weekend, Glenn Beck announced the re-creation of a revolutionary force called the Black Robe Regiment. At his Restoring Honor rally on Saturday, Beck claimed that “our churches have fallen asleep” and that the “thousands of clergy” in the Regiment who subscribe to his particular views on the role of religion in American life, will “start the heart of this nation again and put it where it belongs: our heart with God….”

Yep.

Big zero plus.

 

…and the poor, and seniors, and the uninsured?

Today, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

The House has repealed ‪#ObamaCare‬! We must repeal this bill that’s increasing health care costs & making it harder for businesses to hire. 12:57 PM – 11 Jul 12

First of all, Representative Hartzler (r) [and the republican controlled House] didn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act. That would take the concurrence of the Senate. She [and they] voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

And if repeal came to pass, what would that mean?

Preexisting conditions? Lifetime limits on coverage? Wellness visits? Children on their parent’s insurance until age twenty-six? Limits on insurance company overhead?

From Cass County Prosecutor and 4th Congressional District Democratic Party candidate Teresa Hensley’s campaign:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 11, 2012

[….]

CONGRESS, HARTZLER STUCK IN THE PAST WHILE MISSOURI FAMILIES WONDER ABOUT THE FUTURE

Raymore, MO – Today, despite a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that appeared to settle the issue, Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler and the rest of the House of Representatives voted for the 31st time in the last 18 months to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“The Supreme Court decided that the Affordable Care Act should stand,” said Cass County Prosecutor and congressional candidate Teresa Hensley.  “Whether you believe that’s a good decision or a bad one, the Supreme Court has ruled. Now it’s time to move forward.  The fact that Congresswoman Hartzler and the rest of Congress continue to argue and debate a topic that’s been settled by the highest court in the land is just another example of how broken things are in Washington. Instead of the bickering, Congress needs to start tackling some of the big issues Missouri families are facing.”

According to NPR, since the first attempt on January 19, 2011, “the House has taken 30 floor votes to try to repeal, defund or dismantle the health care law.”  [NPR, 7/9/12]  Today’s vote marks the 31st attempt.  Congress has repeatedly sought to repeal the act, but has yet to offer an alternative policy.

As a Member of Congress, Hensley would prioritize:

Job Creation.  Provide incentives to small businesses for hiring.  End the outsourcing of American jobs.  Make strategic investments to repair Missouri’s crumbling infrastructure.

Responsible Budgeting.  Cutting wasteful spending like big tax giveaways to oil companies that don’t need them – not programs seniors and the middle class rely on.

Support for Military and Veterans.  Prevent cuts to bases – like those in the 4th district – that provide good local jobs for the communities in which they are a part of.  Make sure our military has the resources it needs.  Provide veterans with top-notch health care services and access to job opportunities when they return home.

# # #

Thirty-one attempts to do away with health care reform by the republican right wingnuts in the U.S. House of Representatives. And still no action on jobs.  

Yesterday Representative Mike McGhee (r) introduced HB 1520, which repeals the death penalty. You read that right. From the Journal of the House [pdf]:

….HB 1520, introduced by Representatives McGhee, Lasater, Wieland, Berry, Kelly (24), Rizzo, Meadows, Webb, Morgan, McCreery, Atkins, Nasheed, Hughes, Talboy, Spreng, Carter, Quinn, Shively, Hubbard, Jones (63), Swearingen, Pace, Walton Gray, McNeil, McDonald, Carlson, Hodges, Sommer, Hummel, Stream, Brown (50), Ellington, Schupp, Kirkton, Montecillo, Oxford, Taylor, Pierson, Webber, Ellinger, Smith (71), McCann Beatty, McGeoghegan and Lant, relating to repealing the death penalty….

In case you’re curious, that’s an actual bipartisan list of co-sponsors.

The actual bill.

From Representative Vicky Hartzler’s (r) town hall in Blue Springs, Missouri on April 28, 2011:

…We repealed the government takeover of health care. That, that’s my version, yes, it’s biased, but I can’t remember the name. It’s fancy name name, the path, uh, the patient protection, well, anyway, you remember, you know what bill I’m talking about. The Pre, the one which passed last year. Anyway, that is very, very costly and very onerous for job creation. Because it, health care costs for business are huge and now they cost have go, gone up even higher. So, the Path to Prosperity, uh, repeals that. In doing that it reduces the national debt which helps reduce that uncertainty, that dark cloud over businesses’ heads, consolidates programs, spends, brings spending down, targets wasteful programs, and repeals [inaudible]…

[emphasis added]

And this, too:

…It, uh, it required the Senate, and the Senate agreed, to have to have an up or down vote on repealing Obamacare and, uh, defunding Planned Parenthood. Those were two things that, uh, you know, might be helpful next year, uh, or not. And it also is requiring four studies of [inaudible] the true expenses of last year’s health care bill, uh, what it’s really gonna cost businesses, what are these regulations, what’s the impact going to be. And we, this information has been kind of withheld by [Secretary of Health and Human Services] Kathleen Sebelius and the department. And so this is gonna be very helpful as we look to, to, uh, find out and, and to discuss the merits of the program or whether it should be repealed…

[emphasis added]

Wait a minute, I thought you said “[w]e repealed the government takeover of health care.” And later it’s “to discuss the merits of the program or whether it should be repealed…” Which is it? You can’t have it both ways.

And people are so not into health care reform that they’re not taking advantage of any of the provisions that are just now kicking in. Or are they? (via Balloon Juice):

At Least 600,000 Young Adults Join Parents’ Health Plans Under New Law

By Phil Galewitz

KHN Staff Writer

May 03, 2011

Hundreds of thousands of young adults are taking advantage of the health care law provision that allows people under 26 to remain on their parents’ health plans, some of the nation’s largest insurers are reporting. That pace appears to be faster than the government expected.

WellPoint, the nation’s largest publicly traded health insurer with 34 million customers, said the dependent provision was responsible for adding 280,000 new members. That was about one third its total enrollment growth in the first three months of 2011….

Try repealing that and see where it gets you.

From Kay at Balloon Juice:

What Changed?

…The GOP House majority ran on repealing and replacing the PPACA. They have been busy since the election with holding useless, purely political votes in the House to repeal parts of the existing health care law. In fact, the one and only health care plan Republicans have put forth is Paul Ryan’s health care plan, which replaces Medicare with a private, underfunded voucher system and drastically cuts Medicaid under the guise of “block grants”.

Although we all know that around 40% of Medicaid spending currently goes to the elderly and the disabled, Ryan’s proposal for drastic cuts in Medicaid continues to be portrayed as gutting a program “for the poor”. Medicaid is a program that serves the poor but it also serves the most vulnerable people in the country: the elderly and the disabled. They’re not just “the poor”. And, Medicare and Medicaid are connected. It is disingenuous to talk about health care for the elderly and limit the discussion to Ryan’s 6,000 dollar Medicare vouchers. That isn’t the reality of people’s lives.

Republicans in the House are seeking repeal of a health care reform law that is benefiting people now, today, and they have offered nothing to replace it. Paul Ryan seeks to dramatically change the existing health care system, and has offered nothing to the people who would be without access to health care under his proposal. At the state level, Mitch Daniels in Indiana, under pressure from a certain conservative political faction, just agreed to deny access to clinics to 20,000 people who had access to those clinics.

Less than two years ago we had a health care debate in this country. We reached broad public consensus that we need to expand access to health care. Conservatives are now seeking to limit access to health care or, in the case of Mitch Daniels, actually limiting access, and no one seems to notice.

Did I miss something here? Did the public intellectuals and media personalities decide somewhere along the line that we don’t need to expand access to health care, but instead need to limit access? What changed?

[emphasis added]

“….Conservatives are now seeking to limit access to health care….” From the republican point of view that’s a feature, not a bug.

The first republican attempt to repeal health care reform failed in the Senate by a vote of 47-51. It has to have the most inane title for an amendment ever concocted by posturing republicans:

Question:  On the Motion (Motion to Waive All Applicable Budgetary Discipline Re: McConnell Amdt. No. 13 )

Vote Number: 9 Vote Date: February 2, 2011, 06:05 PM

Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Motion Rejected

Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 13 to S. 223 (FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act)

Statement of Purpose: To repeal the job-killing health care law and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Vote Counts: YEAs 47

NAYs 51

Not Voting 2

Blunt (R-MO), Yea  

McCaskill (D-MO), Nay

[emphasis added]

The amendment:

SA 13. Mr. McCONNELL proposed an amendment to the bill S. 223, to modernize the air traffic control system, improve the safety, reliability, and availability of transportation by air in the United States, provide modernization of the air traffic control system, reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, and for other purposes; as follows:

   At the appropriate place, insert the following:

TITLE __–REPEAL OF JOB-KILLING HEALTH CARE LAW

  SEC. X01. SHORT TITLE.

   This title may be cited as the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act”.

  SEC. X02. REPEAL OF THE JOB-KILLING HEALTH CARE LAW AND HEALTH CARE-RELATED PROVISIONS IN THE HEALTH CARE AND EDUCATION RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2010.

   (a) Job-Killing Health Care Law.–Effective as of the enactment of Public Law 111-148, such Act is repealed, and the provisions of law amended or repealed by such Act are restored or revived as if such Act had not been enacted.

   (b) Health Care-Related Provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.–Effective as of the enactment of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-152), title I and subtitle B of title II of such Act are repealed, and the provisions of law amended or repealed by such title or subtitle, respectively, are restored or revived as if such title and subtitle had not been enacted.

  SEC. X03. BUDGETARY EFFECTS OF THIS TITLE.

   The budgetary effects of this title, for the purpose of complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall be determined by reference to the latest statement titled “Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation” for this title, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives, as long as such statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage of this title.

So, Roy Blunt (r-lobbyists) voted to reinstate rescission, to reinstate restrictions on pre-existing conditions, to throw college students off their parent’s health insurance, to continue the lack of insurance for tens of millions of Americans, and to add several hundred billion dollars to the national debt (according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office), among many other things.

Of course the party of “No” has nothing in the wings to address those problems.

Thanks for that nothing.