Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Big Oil Execs Hit Jackpot With Estate Tax Repeal

The U.S. Senate will soon consider the total or at least partial repeal of the estate tax. Republicans have been very successful in renaming the tax the “death tax” creating the impression that we all pay upon death. This is of course untrue. As I posted just last month, 99.7% of Wisconsinites don’t pay the estate tax because their estate is not worth enough to trigger that tax.

Democrats have issued a report putting a face on some of those that will benefit from such an appeal of the estate tax. They examine how much big oil executives would personally save providing us with the information below:


Lee R. Raymond of ExxonMobil (Retired) gets $164 million

Rex W. Tillerson of ExxonMobil gets $12

James J. Mulva of ConocoPhillips gets $12

William R. Klesse of Valero Energy gets $11 million

Clarence P. Cazalot Jr of Marathon Oil gets $9 million

David J. O’Reilly of Chevron Corp. gets $3 million

For a Total of $211 million to the executives of big oil!

Not only would these guys save hundreds of millions of dollars, but it would cost the treasury $1 trillion. What programs would be cut as a result of making the super rich even richer? It is likely that the people that are most vulnerable in our society would suffer most from such cutbacks. That is a huge price to pay to save Lee Raymond’s family a fortune.

No comments: