skeeter,
This is real simple, but you want to deflect the issue from the inconsistency in his position to a debate about values over which I have made no judgment.
Warren stated thess things:
1. He wanted to get good value for each dollar of his estate
2. He wanted each dollar to reflect his personal values
3. He would not get as good value from the government and implied that each dollar would not reflect his values as well.
There is absolutely nothing wrong or inconsistent with him giving his money to charity, encouraging others to do the same, and avoiding taxes doing it. In fact, in prior discussions I have even said that if they did, they would create more efficient solutions to our social problems that actually reflected the values of givers instead of the politics and waste in government. Private charity is a very libertarian idea.
However, there absolutely IS something inconsistent with lobbying for estate taxes that won't impact you when almost all Americans also want to get good value for their dollars, have those dollars reflect their values (like him), but most want to leave most of their money to their children.
The reason it is inconsistent is that everyone that chooses to leave it to their children CANNOT meet the very conditions that Warren wants for himself. The taxes they pay will go towards things they may not approve of, won't deliver as good value for the dollar as their own choices, and don't reflect their personal value of leaving it to loved family members.
If Warren wanted to be consistent it would have been very easy for him to write a check to government for the amount of taxes he would have owed "IF" he left it all to his children and gave the remainder to charity. Then he could say he was in the exact same tax position as everyone else regardless of their values, but made his case for why he thinks charity is better for society than leaving it to children and family.
That's not what he has done.
What he has done is to suggest that his values are better than most other people's so his should not be taxed but everyone else's should.
I agree with him that private charity is essential if we are ever going to reduce the "waste and damage" caused by expanding government, but that has nothing to do with the inconsistency of his position and lobbying.
We can let this go because I think we are taking about 2 different things. |
