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For IP, if you wish.....
Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation
>>> Valerie Collins 4/25/2006 1:05 PM >>>
For Immediate Release: Contact: Taylor
Lincoln (202) 454-5197
April 25, 2006 Robert
Yule (202) 588-7703
Christina
Kasica (617) 432-2148, ext. 119
Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy Expose Stealth Campaign of
Super-Wealthy to Repeal Federal Estate Tax
Report Identifies 18 Families Behind Multimillion-Dollar Deceptive Lobbying
Campaign
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The multimillion-dollar lobbying effort to repeal the
federal estate tax has been aggressively led by 18 super-wealthy families,
according to a report released today by Public Citizen and United for a Fair
Economy at a press conference in Washington, D.C. The report details for the
first time the vast money, influence and deceptive marketing techniques behind
the rhetoric in the campaign to repeal the tax.
It reveals how 18 families worth a total of $185.5 billion have financed and
coordinated a 10-year effort to repeal the estate tax, a move that would
collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion.
The report, available at www.citizen.org, [specifically, at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/EstateTaxFinal.pdf] profiles the families and
their businesses, which include the families behind Wal-Mart, Gallo wine,
Campbell's soup, and Mars Inc., maker of M&Ms. Collectively, the list includes
the first- and third-largest privately held companies in the United States, the
richest family in Alabama and the world's largest retailer.
These families have sought to keep their activities anonymous by using
associations to represent them and by forming a massive coalition of business
and trade associations dedicated to pushing for estate tax repeal. The report
details the groups they have hidden behind - the trade associations they have
used, the lobbyists they have hired, and the anti-estate tax political action
committees, 527s and organizations to which they have donated heavily.
In a massive public relations campaign, the families have also misled the
country by giving the mistaken impression that the estate tax affects most
Americans. In particular, they have used small businesses and family farms as
poster children for repeal, saying that the estate tax destroys both of these
groups. But just more than one-fourth of one percent of all estates will owe
any estate taxes in 2006. And the American Farm Bureau, a member of the
anti-estate tax coalition, was unable when asked by The New York Times to cite
a single example of a family being forced to sell its farm because of estate
tax liability.
"This report exposes one of the biggest con jobs in recent history," said Joan
Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "This long-running, secretive campaign
funded by some of the country's wealthiest families has relied on deception to
bamboozle the public not only about who must pay the estate tax, but about how
repealing it will affect the country."
Said Lee Ferris, senior organizer for estate tax policy at UFE, "It's time for
the majority of Americans who support the estate tax to speak out, and not let
a handful of wealthy families sway Congress to twist the tax laws for their own
benefit. Polls now show that most Americans support this tax and the revenue it
yields to pay for vital services, especially given our nation's huge deficit."
While they extol the hard work of individual farmers and small businesses, most
of the 18 families have been wealthy for generations; only five still include
the people who first earned the family fortune. Members of the families are far
less likely than most Americans to have paid taxes on their wealth; to a large
extent, that wealth lies in assets that have appreciated but, unlike paychecks,
have never been taxed.
These super-rich families have spent millions in personal wealth and used their
companies' resources and lobbying power in repeated attempts to influence
members of Congress to repeal the tax. They have financed groups who have
launched multimillion-dollar attack ads against Republican and Democratic
senators alike, including former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.)
and Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Olympia Snow (R-Maine), Blanche Lincoln
(D-Ark.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Lincoln Chaffee (R-R.I.) and Kent Conrad
(D-N.D.).
The stakes of the campaign are great, not only for the super-wealthy families,
but for the public. If the families' repeal bid succeeds, it will cost the U.S.
Treasury a trillion dollars in the first decade - roughly what it would cost to
provide health insurance for every uninsured person in the United States.
"The estate tax should be regarded as just paying back to the country for all
the wonderful things it's made possible for the people who have that wealth,"
said Bill Gates Sr. in an audio statement played at the press conference. "I
don't think there's any great societal goal being served by inherited wealth.
And certainly there's no sensible argument that I can think of for insisting on
being able to pass the last penny of $100 million on to your three kids."
Added Elizabeth Letzler, an investment manager from New York who will be
subject to the estate tax and who spoke at the press conference, "The current
estate tax structure should permit any wealthy household to pass on a legacy of
financial security, education and family heirlooms to the next generations."
She challenged the families showcased in the report: "Do something spectacular
during your life-time investing in the social welfare and well-being of the
children and grandchildren at the bottom of the pyramid." Her daughter
Stephanie, also in attendance, said, "If keeping the estate tax means a step
closer to a debt-free treasury, a step closer to improved health care, Social
Security, education, and every other program that makes me proud to be an
American, show me where to sign the check."
Paul Newman, actor and founder of Newman's Own food company, agreed in a
separate statement: "For those of us lucky enough to be born in this country
and to have flourished here, the estate tax is a reasonable and appropriate way
to return something to the common good. I'm proud to be among those supporting
preservation of this tax, which is one of the fairest taxes we have."
###
Public Citizen (www.citizen.org) is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy
organization based in Washington, D.C. United for a Fair Economy
(www.faireconomy.org) is a national, non-partisan, nonprofit organization that
spotlights the growing economic divide in the United States.
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