Told ya.



Don’t call this Donald Trump’s tax reform.

Call it “Ivanka’s Law.” Because that’s what it is.

Donald Trump on Wednesday announced plans to save Ivanka and his other children a staggering $1.4 billion in taxes.

“ The Republican arguments for abolishing the estate tax are self-serving, illogical nonsense. ”

He did so even though the federal budget is already in a deficit — and Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are in danger of running out of money.

Oh, and just for the fun of it, he got two cronies from Goldman Sachs to give us the news. Haha.

Middle-class Trumpsters, have you got it yet? Or are you still face down in the Kool-Aid?

The key provision in Trump’s so-called “tax reform” proposals is his plan to eliminate the estate tax, which Republicans insist on lying about and calling the “death tax.”

Forbes estimates Trump is worth (financially) $3.5 billion. At today’s top 40% estate tax rate, Ivanka and her siblings would inherit “only” a net $2.1 billion after Daddy goes to that great bankrupt casino in the sky.

But if Trump gets his way, thanks to his new proposals, his kids would instead get the full $3.5 billion.

The federal government would have to find the money somewhere else. And that means from you.

The essence of financial journalism is following the money. The Trump junta doesn’t even try to make it difficult. Every week they’re finding new ways to plunder the public purse. Trump even used government websites to advertise Mar-A-Lago, his for-profit members’ club in Florida. Really, how hard is this?

The latest boondoggle is not just about enriching the Worst Family. It’s good for the whole regime. Steven Mnuchin, the ex-Goldman Sachs tycoon who helped announce the proposal, is so rich that when he filed his personal financial disclosure in January, he “forgot” to include $95 million.

No, really. His net worth is estimated at more than half a billion dollars — so this proposal is likely to save his heirs at least $200 million.

Bloomberg worked out last fall that Trump’s cabinet was worth at least $12 billion, which means this one boondoggle will save their families about $4.8 billion.

The Republican arguments for abolishing the estate tax are self-serving, illogical nonsense.

I’m fed up to the back teeth with having to go over this again and again. The issue here is not politics or economics but stupidity.

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It is not a “death” tax. You don’t pay any tax when you die, because by then you’re … dead. Get it?

So when Republicans call it the “death tax” they are either (a) people who don’t understand the concept of death, or (b) lying.

You make the call.

The estate tax is a tax on inheritance. It does not tax the person who leaves the money; it taxes the people who receive it.

We tax people on money they did earn, so why not on money they didn’t? Why should a waitress pay 15% payroll tax and 20% federal income tax on her tips so that Princess and Junior can inherit Daddy’s yacht tax-free? What the hell is that?

Could we go any further in trying to emulate France before the revolution of 1789 — when aristocrats paid less tax than everyone else?

I can understand abolishing the estate tax, but only if you abolish all other taxes as well.

After all, is income tax not a tax on hard work?

Are capital-gains tax, and dividend-income tax, not taxes on the fruits of saving?

But as long as you tax even a nickel, it has to come from somewhere. And if it doesn’t come from taxing inheritance, it has to come from savers, investors and workers.

In this particular instance, the choice is even more poignant. The federal budget is already in deficit. The needs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are growing year after year, as more and more people retire — and as retirees live longer and longer.

So these windfalls for the children of the super-rich will be paid for, sooner or later, by cuts to those programs. Could there be anything more obscene?

And in case anyone wonders, my father was not rich but he built up a respectable middle-class position during his life, and when he died, my siblings and I paid the inheritance tax on what he left us. This was back in the 1990s, too, when the thresholds were pretty low and the tax topped out at 45%.

I never blinked an eye about the tax. I didn’t earn the money. Why should I get it tax-free?

I am disgusted by these greedy people who are whining about paying tax on massive windfalls that they didn’t even earn.

Right now there is no inheritance tax on the first $11 million of a couple’s estate — so, no, Trump is not saving “middle-class families” from inheritance tax. He is saving the super-rich. They’re already living in fat city. They’ve never had it so good. Now they are pulling up the drawbridge.

Follow the money. It’s not difficult.