The Senate has enough votes to pass the weak Lincoln/Kyl estate tax as part of the overall Obama-GOP tax package. Our best hope for a stronger estate tax is in the House of Representatives. House leaders are developing their strategy now.
Let your representative and the House leadership know what you want.
MAKE THREE CALLS using our toll-free number to the Congressional switchboard at 800-830-5738:
- Call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and urge her to organize a vote on amending the tax package to include a stronger estate tax at the 2009 level or better.
- Call House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and demand the same of him.
- Call your own Representative and urge him/her to ask Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Hoyer to hold a vote on amending the tax package to include a stronger estate tax at the 2009 level or better.
Let’s flood their phones with calls! If the House fixes the bill to include a stronger estate tax, there’s still time for the Senate to pass the bill. (And if the switchboard is busy, here’s the direct line for Rep. Nancy Pelosi: 202-225-0100; for Rep. Steny Hoyer: 202-225-3130.)
Learn more about the federal estate tax. Also see UFE’s recent press releases and E-News stories on the estate tax.
Forward a link to this alert to friends, family and colleagues. Call and urge them to take action. And, help spread the word further by blogging about this important issue, and sharing this alert on your social networks.
Thanks for doing your part in the fight for tax justice!
Here are some encouraging quotes we've seen in the news over the past few days:
"[The estate tax cut] is rightly seen by the overwhelming majority of the Democratic caucus as egregious and unnecessary...Are Republicans really willing to hold up tax relief for millions of middle class Americans and others in order to provide a $25 billion hit to the deficit that benefits 6,600 estates at an average benefit of $1.8 million?”
- Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
“Ninety-nine point seven percent of American families will not pay one nickel in an estate tax...This is not a tax on the rich. This is a tax on the very, very, very rich.”
- Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
"The people at the very, very top have made enormous gains...Now we're saying, you've ridden this huge wave of economic inequality and now we're going to let you pass even more of your wealth to your heirs without paying any taxes."
- Leonard E. Burman, tax policy expert at Syracuse University,
on the decades of wage stagnation for lower- and middle-income Americans.
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