NBC Marks Death Tax
Bills Demise with Democratic Zinger
Anchor Brian Williams left out
conservative talking points and studies showing negative impact of
estate tax.
By Ken Shepherd
Business & Media Institute
June 9, 2006
On the June 8 Nightly News, NBCs Brian Williams
squeezed in a Democratic talking point when reporting the Senate
vote on the death tax.
While Williams said that Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist (R-Tenn.) called the estate tax unfair and vowed to bring
the legislation to a vote again later in the year, the NBC anchor
added that Democrats would oppose what they call a budget-busting
giveaway to the wealthiest Americans.
Williams left out classic conservative talking points
such as
Grover Norquists
quip that the government has no business erecting a toll booth on
the stairway to heaven.
But political rhetoric aside, NBC News did a disservice
to its viewers by also leaving out the findings of tax policy
researchers who say:
the estate tax costs more than it takes in;
its a relatively insignificant source of federal
income;
the United States has one of the highest estate tax
rates in the world; and
estate taxes have a negative impact on economic
growth.
The
Tax Foundation issued a report on June 2 that found the estate
tax has a negative effect on entrepreneurship, imposes large
compliance costs on the U.S. economy, and is not an important source
of federal revenue. Compared to the
federal income tax,
the estate tax is nearly five times more costly per dollar of
revenue, the Washington-based think tank argued, referring to
studies that have estimated the compliance cost.
The Tax Foundation is hardly alone in arguing the
estate tax is unwise policy. In July 2005, the
American Council for
Capital Formation (ACCF) released a study finding the federal estate tax higher than that of
all other countries surveyed except for Japan and Korea. Even
heavily socialistic countries like France, Finland, Norway, and Hugo
Chavezs Venezuela had lower inheritance or estate taxes. Sweden,
Russia, China and Canada were among the countries the ACCF found had
no inheritance tax.
Finding that estate taxes negatively impact savings
rates, the cost of capital, investment rates, and job growth, ACCF
concluded that the U.S. estate tax is an unnecessary impediment to
economic growth.
