Whoopi Goldberg on the Estate Tax

"I'd like somebody to get rid of the death tax. That's what I want. I don't want to get taxed just because I died."

Whoopi Goldberg

My first is the last time I've seen Whoopi was on the Hollywood Squares.

My second thought is the woman so greedy she wants to keep her money after she dies. Damn, Whoopi, just do another Sister Act sequel if money is that important.

The Wall Street Journal jumps on Goldberg's statement. It's really bad when TWJ editorial staff needs The View to make their case.

Ms. Goldberg has her political facts down. It's not just "people with a lot of money" who oppose confiscatory estate taxes. Billionaires like Warren Buffett have made a crusade of urging Congress to keep the death tax, even as he shelters much of his own wealth from that tax by giving to charity. However, according to polls, some 70% of voters favor a full repeal. And many, like Ms. Goldberg apparently, do so on moral grounds. Death as a taxable event and double taxation offend the average American's sense of fairness.

The Wall Street Journal lambasted Buffett for giving money to charity. They aren't bothered by Goldberg wanting to take her cash to the grave.

The estate tax doesn't kick in until $2 million. It goes back up to $3.5 million in 2009. The Death tax crusaders are attempting to change that.

Fact: The estate tax would make the federal deficit worse. Over $1 trillion in revenue would be lost during a ten year period. Conservatives give the absurdist answer that more tax cuts will replace the lost revenue. Bush sold the tax cuts as helping to increase the federal surplus. The White House said that the surplus would be over $3 trillion during the next ten years. We saw how that went.

The estate tax affect less than one percent of the U.S. population. Less than 20 percent the the value of the estate is taxed. Whoopi would be hit, but most people won't.

I look forward to the Wall Street Journal writing an op-ed on Elisabeth Hasselbeck's pro-war position on Iraq.