President Bush wants Congress to permanently repeal the estate tax this summer. This tax only affects the wealthiest 2 percent of the nation’s families, and as a member of one of those families, I must say that repealing it would be fundamentally immoral.

The estate tax applies to assets that a person transfers to heirs when he or she dies. The first $1.5 million of the estate is exempted (not taxed), and the rest is taxed at 45 to 48 percent. Couples, small businesses and farms have higher exemptions: $3 million, $5 million and $8 million, respectively. The average effective estate tax rate for those who have to pay it is less than 19 percent. In 2003, this tax raised an estimated $20 billion.

Repealing the estate tax would be unfair. In any decent society, the wealthy pay a higher income tax rate than working families. As President Teddy Roosevelt once said, “The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.” The estate tax helps ensure that the wealthy pay their share.

Although right-wing ideologues howl that the estate tax constitutes “double taxation,” reasonable people understand that this is often untrue, and always irrelevant. Everyone experiences “double taxation.” Workers pay income taxes on their salaries, and then pay sales taxes, tolls and so on with their already-taxed earnings. The question is not whether a particular pile of money has been taxed twice, but rather what revenues we need to build a decent society, and how we should apportion the community’s responsibility to provide those revenues.

In any case, I can tell you from experience that the estate tax frequently provides the only opportunity to tax an individual’s income. Wealthy people can often delay paying taxes on their income, potentially forever. For example, my family’s business invests in real estate. If we buy $1 million worth of land, and the land’s value doubles, our family is $1 million richer. Even if we do not sell the land, we have increased access to larger and lower interest loans, capital we can invest to produce more income. However, we pay no income taxes on the land’s appreciation unless we sell it. If the land stays in the family, we will continue to get tax-free income, year after year, potentially for generations. The estate tax ensures that we eventually pay some tax on that income.

The estate tax also helps preserve equal opportunity. Children of wealthy families get a tremendous head start in life. Simply because I was born into a wealthy family, I could attend the nation’s finest schools without accumulating mountains of debt. I did not have to worry about making ends meet as I sought my path in life and ultimately decided to pursue a public service career. Connections through my family and the elite schools I attended mean that my phone calls will be answered, and family role models and programs in my schools have taught me invaluable skills for obtaining and succeeding in a job. Though I have tried to make the most of these blessings, without them I would have had to work twice as hard to get where I am today.

There is nothing wrong with this; Americans believe in working hard to create opportunities for our children. However, we also understand that our community must invest in quality education, health care and other services for everyone, so that everyone who works hard and plays by the rules can build a decent life for their families.

Sadly, like President Reagan before him, President Bush has instead cut taxes for the wealthy (with the support of Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins), so that the nation’s billionaires actually pay lower effective income tax rates than middle-class families. Also like Reagan, he has slashed services for low- and middle-income families, and saddled future generations with a crushing federal debt to pay off. Income inequality in the United States is approaching all-time highs, and social mobility is approaching all-time lows. It is becoming easier to achieve the American Dream in Europe than in the United States, and the rise of an American aristocracy threatens to overwhelm the political equality at the heart of our democracy.

Now President Bush wants to give us wealthy folks another handout. He claims that people must sell family farms to pay the tax, but neither he nor the pro-repeal American Farm Bureau has found a single example. Small business sales to pay estate taxes are similarly rare, and my family’s business faces no such danger. Therefore, I hope that Sens. Snowe and Collins will join Reps. Mike Michaud and Tom Allen in opposing this unfair and irresponsible tax cut proposal.

Clifford Ginn works for the Maine Center for Economic Policy, an independent, nonpartisan research organization. He lives in Portland.

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