Attack on estate tax another boost for wealthy

The very conservative Supreme Court, with rulings in the Citizens United and the McCutcheon v. FEC cases, has now stricken down overall limits for federal campaign contributions.

Now massive amounts of money from corporations and wealthy individuals is pouring into campaigns, effectively buying the candidates of their choice. This is legislation McCain, Feingold and others worked years and years on to pass, undone in Roberts Court with two decisions.

Japanese CEOs' average compensation is one-sixth that of American CEOs and only 16 times the average worker's. The average American CEO's compensation is 319 times the average compensation.

These are the same people who have shipped all the jobs out of the country to the sweat shops of Third World countries, building middle classes around the world at the demise of our own.

Now there is a bill in Congress to eliminate the estate tax completely. This is a bill to undo what also took years to implement. I hope everyone understands there is a $5.4 million exemption for an individual and a $10.9 million exemption for married couples on which no federal tax applies so few pay federal estate tax anyway.

Therefore, this is a tax on the very, very wealthy they are trying to eliminate.

Hold on, everyone. America is quickly moving to a complete plutocracy. The Republic as we have known it in the past is quickly becoming history with these decisions.

Leo A. Dietrich

Lake Villa