A Time To Act

By Linda Beale
The radical conservative assault on American values is tuning up for a major battle in Congress in September.  There are a number of significant issues on the agenda that are being pushed by the military-corporate-fundamentalist coalition now in power.  It is time now for all progressives to take up pen and phone and fight back with the only weapon we can use--our ability to talk to our Senators and Congressional representative to let them know we do not want them to give the country away lock, stock and barrel. 

There are at least four major issues that cry out for our attention.  With no attempt to prioritize, because it seems impossible to rank them, they are the following.

1)  Assault on the Environment.  Big Oil intends to use the concern about high gas prices (providing indecent profits to the extractive companies and caused in part by the lack of any reasonable conservation measures in bills passed by Congress over the last few years) to make its final push for access to the pristine wilderness areas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). 

More than 70% of Americans have steadfastly told Congress that they do not want to sacrifice ANWR for 6 months of oil that will not be available at all during the next decade, even if drilling is approved today.  But Congress is not listening--or rather, it is listening to Big Oil and not to ordinary Americans.  As Robert Kennedy, Jr. notes in the spring issue of Waterkeeper Alliance magazine, the failure of the environmental movement to convince Congress to vote to preserve the wilderness for future generations is directly attributable to the "financial and political power of polluting industries and the negligence of the American media ... [which] seldom cover environmental issues and rarely intelligently."  Regrettably, that means that Congress seldom has to face the truth and can pretend it does not know or understand the will of the American people.  (For more information on media concerns, see Mediawatch.

We have only days left to get through to Congress and save the Arctic wilderness from the oil spills, migration-disturbing traffic, noise, and general environmental degradation that go with the oil and gas extractive industries wherever they set foot. Progressive environmentalists may want to send a letter or, better yet, pick up the phone and call.  For those located in the 15th Congressional District, tell Tim Johnson, Barack Obama and Dick Durbin that we would rather see no budget enacted than see a budget reconciliation bill that permits drilling in ANWR.  Interested parties can also send an email easily by using the Natural Resources Defense Council network.   Go to NRDC Arctic Photo Gallery and sign up to send an email.  If you want to know more about NRDC, you can go to the NRDC home site here.

2)  Repeal of the Millionaire's Estate Tax.  The House of Representatives already passed a bill repealing the Estate Tax, but it has done so before.  In the past, the Senate has been able to stop this millionaire giveaway, but the right-wing think tanks have been pushing hard for Estate Tax repeal.  On the first day the Senate is in session in September, the Republicans have slated a vote to eliminate the Estate Tax. 

The Estate Tax is a tax that is paid only by the richest 2 percent of Americans--billionaires and multimillionaires.  Repeal will cost as much as $1 trillion in the first ten years of repeal.  That $1 trillion dollar burden from the cost of repeal will shift to ordinary taxpayers. 

Even if a compromise "reform" passes rather than repeal, it will be a victory for the wealthy with little value for ordinary Americans.  The compromise that has been suggested would let $8 or $10 or even $12 million be excluded from tax, and would tax the remaining estate in excess of that amount at the very low capital gains rate of 15 percent.  That would greatly reduce the revenue raised by the estate tax (to as low as 7% of the current revenues from the tax).  It would also pave the way for easy elimination of the millionaire's Estate Tax later, when the Republicans renew their push for reducing capital gains tax to zero throughout the tax system.

Estate Tax repeal does not make sense.  Ordinary Americans are already exempt from the tax.  The exemption level has increased from just under $700,000 to $1 million and now to $1.5 million, with additional increases slated before it reverts to its pre-2001 level under the sunset gimmick. (That gimmick permitted Congress to pretend that various tax cuts enacted and planned to be made permanent did not cost as much as they actually do cost.)  Farmers have the opportunity to pay over 14 years, so family farms do not have to be sold to pay the Estate Tax. 

Eliminating the Estate Tax is a boon for the very wealthy, such as the 400 wealthiest Americans with average incomes of $174 million and others in the top 1 percent who already own most of the country's assets.  Wealthy Americans will personally benefit from Estate Tax repeal, but ordinary Americans will pick up the tab through an ever-growing U.S. debt burden, future tax increases, or drastic cuts in services and benefits important to us all.  The result will be Estate Tax cuts for the wealthy, and cuts in educational support, Social Security benefits, and health care for everybody else.   

Read more about it on the Taxing Matter blog: Senator Kyl's "Compromise"  and  House Passes Estate Tax Repeal.  Then tell Congress "No!"  You can call or write your Senators and ask them not to support repeal of the Millionaire's tax.  You can also sign the MoveOn Petition.

3)  The Roberts Nomination.  In a draft letter being circulated among law professors, noted legal scholar Erwin Chermerinsky notes that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts has helped push legal policies that weaken the historic role of the federal courts as enforcers of individual rights, especially the rights of minorities and women.  He has shown little concern for privacy rights that most Americans consider fundamental to a democratic society.  He failed to recuse himself from consideration of a most significant case on the constitutionality of Bush's military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees, deciding the case on the same day that he met for the final time with the White House to discuss his candidacy for a Supreme Court position. His vote helped overturn the district court case that had held that the tribunals failed to rise to the level of protection required by the Constitution.

If confirmed, Roberts will replace Sandra Day O'Connor, a conservative justice who nevertheless sometimes provided a swing vote to uphold liberal, progressive interpretations of the Constitution.  Although one can never predict for sure how any person will behave on the Court, Roberts is ideologically attuned to the radical right position that would take away individual rights to seek justice from the federal courts in many instances where the courts have been the only defender of American values.  For more information, read the in-depth report at Supreme Court Watch.

Let your Senators know that Roberts should not be confirmed to our highest Court.  You may also want to contact Senator Diane Feinstein, the lone woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee who will play a critical role in the confirmation hearings.  Pro-choice Democratic Women Senators have set up a website at http://democrats.senate.gov/askroberts/ through which ordinary Americans can suggest questions to ask Roberts. Click here to read more from Emily's List.

Contact information follows:

Senator Richard J. Durbin (D- IL)	202-224-2152	202-228-0400	http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Senator Barack Obama (D- IL)	202-224-2854	202-228-4260	http://obama.senate.gov/contact/

Feinstein contact information

202-224-3841

202-228-3954

http://feinstein.senate.gov/email.html

You can also look up telephone numbers and email addresses for other senators and representatives at this address:  Congressional Directory.

Let all of them know that we want them to stand firm against the conservative takeover of the Court that would abandon privacy rights and civil rights generally.

4)  The War in Iraq.  Bush's war is going very badly, with no end in sight.  Money for reconstruction of the infrastructure that our bombs destroyed has gone to line the pockets of Iraqi expatriates with visions of riches and military contractors, like Halliburton, who have been paid even in the face of evidence of significant overcharging. As the situation deteriorates further into civil war, the most probable stable outcome (if there is one) is an Islamic theocracy that treats women and religious minorities as second-class citizens.  More Americans continue to die, and more Iraqis continue to die.  We have no idea how many villages our jets strafe with bombs each week, or how many innocent men, women and children we have killed or jailed in Iraq since the war started.  We know the number killed is in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands.   We know that this war in Iraq has created terrorism where there was none, and has bred enmity towards the United States even where there was some initial good will.  And on Sunday, August 28, the New York Times carried a story quoting the general who heads one of the prisons in Iraq: according to the general, one in four detainees in the Iraqi prison are people who are simply caught up in military sweeps and should not be detained. 

Meanwhile, Bush continues the outright misinformation about what is going on in Iraq.  Bush took us to war on false claims of WMD.  He claimed "Mission Accomplished" when in fact it had just begun.  He appointed and kept incompetent leaders who constantly misrepresented the facts on the ground.  One week ago Rumsfeld, trying to paint the stalled negotiations as a success, said failure to reach consensus on the Iraqi constitution would be disaster.  Yet this week Bush is claiming success when a constitution without the support of the Sunnis has been forwarded for the vote.  This constitution makes Islam the national religion and puts Islamic law in place, yet Bush claims that it represents freedom of religion and upholds rights of women. 

Americans will gather for a massive End the War March on Washington on September 24, 2005, sponsored by United for Peace and Justice and ANSWER.  People will gather from all over the country.  One bus is currently slated to carry 40-50 people from Champaign-Urbana to join in the protest, and it is possible that another bus can be added.  If you are interested in going, contact AWARE as soon as possible.  You can email Durl Kruse at [email protected].   We will be telling Congress and the President that they cannot ignore us and that they must develop a plan for removing American troops from Iraq.

The list goes on and on.  Bush, using the bully pulpit of the presidency, suggests that a non-provable, non-scientific religious explanation of the origin of species deserves the same treatment in schools as the scientific theory of evolution.  Bush appoints Bolton to the United Nations in another abusive use of the recess appointment power, which is predicated upon an urgent need to appoint when it is expected that the Senate would readily approve the nominee.  More information continues to come out, in spite of the media distraction with the Supreme Court nomination, about Rove's primary role in outing a CIA agent as part of an apparent vindictive, partisan smear campaign.   See "Two Aides to Rove Testify in CIA Leak Inquiry," New York Times, August 3, 2005, at A13.   DeLay takes part in "Justice Sunday II", a meeting of fundamentalist religious groups who want activist judges to overturn existing legal precedent to favor their own narrow ideologies.  Abramoff, a Republican fundraiser and close ally of DeLay, is implicated in shady deals.  We cannot let this go on.

We invite concerned Americans to take a stand.  Write and call your government representatives.  Tell them what ordinary Americans think about the job they are doing in Washington.  Let them know that we will all be watching these votes very closely and that their actions now will determine our votes next year.

Comments

[balenciaga wallets]

In fact, most studies indicate that the ability to leave money to heirs does not drive entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are in business for the challenge

[Linda Beale]

John seems to think that people invest in business so that they can leave money behind to their heirs when they die. In fact, most studies indicate that the ability to leave money to heirs does not drive entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are in business for the challenge, the gratification of accomplishing something, and to earn a living. All of those goals are achievable under a progressive income and wealth transfer tax system.

The ability to amass great wealth and create family dynasties is not an inherent right of people that should be guaranteed by the state. In fact, that ability runs counter to the goal of the state to create a stable environment where all residents can prosper and enjoy equal opportunities to advance. The right time to tax wealth accumulation is at death. The person who amassed the wealth had the full opportunity to use that wealth during his or her life. The wealth would not have been created without the stable market and legal context provided by the state. Death is the appropriate time to demand that the estate pay over some portion of that wealth to help others enjoy the same opportunities.

[John]

Why would anyone invest in a business if the government is going to confiscate 55% of it when you die?

Taking money from one group of people in no way makes anyone richer, except for the government.