[IMC-Boston-Editorial] $490 Million Spent By Super-Wealthy Families to Repeal Estate Tax New Report Shows

[taxpressroom]

For Immediate Release:     Contact: Taylor Lincoln (202) 454-5197
April 25, 2006        Robert Yule (202) 588-7703
              Christina Kasica (617) 432-2148, ext. 119

Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy Expose Stealth Campaign of
Super-Wealthy to Repeal Federal Estate Tax

Report Identifies 18 Families Behind Multimillion-Dollar
Deceptive Lobbying Campaign

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The multimillion-dollar lobbying effort to repeal the
federal  estate tax has been aggressively led by 18 super-wealthy families,
according to  a report released today by Public Citizen and United for a
Fair Economy at a  press conference in Washington, D.C. The report details
for the first time the  vast money, influence and deceptive marketing
techniques behind the rhetoric in  the campaign to repeal the tax.

It reveals how 18 families worth a total of $185.5 billion have financed and
coordinated a 10-year effort to repeal the estate tax, a move that would
collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion.

The report, available at www.citizen.org, profiles the families and their
businesses, which include the families behind Wal-Mart, Gallo wine,
Campbell's  soup, and Mars Inc., maker of M&Ms. Collectively, the list
includes the first-  and third-largest privately held companies in the
United States, the richest  family in Alabama and the world's largest
retailer.

These families have sought to keep their activities anonymous by using
associations to represent them and by forming a massive coalition of
business 
and trade associations dedicated to pushing for estate tax repeal. The
report 
details the groups they have hidden behind - the trade associations they
have 
used, the lobbyists they have hired, and the anti-estate tax political
action 
committees, 527s and organizations to which they have donated heavily.

In a massive public relations campaign, the families have also misled the
country by giving the mistaken impression that the estate tax affects most
Americans. In particular, they have used small businesses and family farms
as 
poster children for repeal, saying that the estate tax destroys both of
these 
groups. But just more than one-fourth of one percent of all estates will owe
any  estate taxes in 2006. And the American Farm Bureau, a member of the
anti-estate  tax coalition, was unable when asked by The New York Times to
cite a single  example of a family being forced to sell its farm because of
estate tax  liability.

"This report exposes one of the biggest con jobs in recent history," said
Joan 
Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "This long-running, secretive
campaign 
funded by some of the country's wealthiest families has relied on deception
to 
bamboozle the public not only about who must pay the estate tax, but about
how  repealing it will affect the country."

Said Lee Ferris, senior organizer for estate tax policy at UFE, "It's time
for 
the majority of Americans who support the estate tax to speak out, and not
let a  handful of wealthy families sway Congress to twist the tax laws for
their own  benefit. Polls now show that most Americans support this tax and
the revenue it  yields to pay for vital services, especially given our
nation's huge deficit."

While they extol the hard work of individual farmers and small businesses,
most  of the 18 families have been wealthy for generations; only five still
include  the people who first earned the family fortune. Members of the
families are far  less likely than most Americans to have paid taxes on
their wealth; to a large  extent, that wealth lies in assets that have
appreciated but, unlike paychecks,  have never been taxed.

These super-rich families have spent millions in personal wealth and used
their  companies' resources and lobbying power in repeated attempts to
influence  members of Congress to repeal the tax. They have financed groups
who have  launched multimillion-dollar attack ads against Republican and
Democratic  senators alike, including former Senate Minority Leader Tom
Daschle (D-S.D.) and  Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Olympia Snow (R-Maine),
Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.),  Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Lincoln Chaffee (R-R.I.) and
Kent Conrad (D-N.D.).

The stakes of the campaign are great, not only for the super-wealthy
families, 
but for the public. If the families' repeal bid succeeds, it will cost the
U.S. 
Treasury a trillion dollars in the first decade - roughly what it would cost
to 
provide health insurance for every uninsured person in the United States.

"The estate tax should be regarded as just paying back to the country for
all 
the wonderful things it's made possible for the people who have that
wealth," 
said Bill Gates Sr. in an audio statement played at the press conference. "I
don't think there's any great societal goal being served by inherited
wealth. 
And certainly there's no sensible argument that I can think of for insisting
on 
being able to pass the last penny of $100 million on to your three kids."

Added Elizabeth Letzler, an investment manager from New York who will be
subject to the estate tax and who spoke at the press conference, "The
current estate tax  structure should permit any wealthy household to pass on
a legacy of financial  security, education and family heirlooms to the next
generations." She  challenged the families showcased in the report: "Do
something spectacular  during your life-time investing in the social welfare
and well-being of the  children and grandchildren at the bottom of the
pyramid." Her daughter Stephanie, also in attendance, said, "If keeping the
estate tax means a step  closer to a debt-free treasury, a step closer to
improved health care, Social  Security, education, and every other program
that makes me proud to be an American, show me where to sign the check."

Paul Newman, actor and founder of Newman's Own food company, agreed in a
separate statement: "For those of us lucky enough to be born in this country
and  to have flourished here, the estate tax is a reasonable and appropriate
way to  return something to the common good. I'm proud to be among those
supporting preservation of this tax, which is one of the fairest taxes we
have."

###

Public Citizen (www.citizen.org) is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy
organization based in Washington, D.C. United for a Fair Economy
(www.faireconomy.org) is a national, non-partisan, nonprofit organization
that 
spotlights the growing economic divide in the United States.