The Wealthy Get More Help From the GOP

The Impolitic weighs in on the impending tax cuts:

That new tax breaks for the wealthy will be passed on Capitol Hill is a given. They have already cleared Congress and the Senate is poised to quickly follow. It's not surprising given that most of our legislators are in the top ten percent of income earners. These breaks will undeniably benefit them.

These breaks are also pay back to all the wealthy people who donated huge sums of money to the Republican Party and expect a return on their investment. How much more of a return do they need? They've been getting breaks right along. Take GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos for example, the Michigan Democratic Party presented evidence showing that he has a long history of influencing government tax policy in order to save him, his company Amway (Quixtar) and his family hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Throughout his career, Dick DeVos has used his and his family’s political influence to enrich Amway and himself at expense of average working families,” said [Democratic Party Chair] Brewer. “In 1997 DeVos got a $300 million dollar federal tax break on Amway’s China investments. In 1998 he lobbied for the elimination of the federal estate tax, which would save the Amway heirs $1.3 billion. And now he is trying to again save Amway and himself millions of dollars by eliminating the SBT. Add it up – nearly $2 billion in tax cuts for Dick DeVos and Amway.” [Emphasis added.]

Single Business Tax Repeal:
DeVos is campaigning for the repeal of the Single Business Tax (SBT) which would result in the loss of nearly $2 billion in state revenue. The SBT’s elimination would cost Michigan families an additional $800 a year or force cuts in public education, health care and public safety. DeVos has also said he said he doesn’t have a plan for replacing the revenue. DeVos is advocating for the SBT’s elimination because it will benefit Amway and him financially. [Emphasis added.]

Estate Tax Repeal
A new Public Citizen report details how Amway, Dick DeVos, his family and the Van Andel family are part of a group that have financed and coordinated a 10-year effort to repeal the federal estate tax, a move that would save DeVos and Van Andel heirs $1.3 billion. The report reveals that Amway first lobbied on the estate tax under Dick DeVos’ [Amway] Presidency in 1998 and has lobbied every year since.

Tax Break on China Investments:
Common Cause reported that a tax loophole was inserted into the 1997 federal tax and budget bill which primarily benefited Amway and its Asian investments, to the tune of nearly $300 million. Amway’s tax giveaway occurred while Dick DeVos was President of the company and after Amway and the DeVos family had given millions of dollars in soft money to various Republican groups during the 1990’s. The $300 million tax loophole for Amway came just before DeVos cut 1,400 Michigan jobs, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in China and created tens of thousands of jobs in China. [Emphasis added.]

Nearly $2 billion in tax cuts just for Dick DeVos and Amway. What about the millions of middle-class families facing stagnant wages, inflation, and the lack of health insurance? What about the 37 million people living in poverty in our country? What about our horrifying infant mortality rate?

Americans are tired of all the tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy. As an editorial in the NYT points out:

After five years of duplicitous fiscal policy, Americans are catching on. And Republicans who see tax cuts as an automatic vote-getter may be in for a rude shock. Some two-thirds of Americans now say that the president's priorities, which clearly include ever more tax cuts, do not reflect their own.

History, like God, is watching what we do. - Bono [Sermon to the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast]