Neighborhood Ministries

I have never seen such a bold attempt to buy an election in my life. President Biden has continued to promote student loan forgiveness even though the Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional  three times already. The President does not have the authority to authorize the expending of billions of dollars without an act of Congress. Younger voters already favor Democrats because of the widespread welfare and social programs. By his continuous promotion of student loan forgiveness, he is cultivating favor with young voters who are piling  up thousands of dollars in student loans. Whether he ever gets to fulfill that promise makes no difference as long as it gets him the votes to push Kamala Harris into the White House to continue pushing his liberal policies. In addition, he is trying to buy the votes of Seniors  by pushing the cost of living raise for Social Security up before the election, although so far it seems to be going mainly to those on Social Security disability. Those of us on regular Social Security have not seen any raise yet. He also suppressed criticism of the reductions in Medicare payments that Democrats pushed through Congress which will force providers to increase the cost of Medicare Advantage plans to Seniors or reduce the services they provide. When he realized that those increases would come before the election, he authorized billions of dollars in payments to providers to get them to hold off on increases until after the election so it would not alienate Senior voters. Again, he has no authority to authorize expenditures without an act of Congress. He seems to feel that Congress is not needed, and he can authorize whatever he wants. This is still a democracy, but he acts like he is a dictator with unlimited authority. He continues to add billions to the national debt with the stroke of a pen. Republicans are afraid to protest too loudly for fear of alienating young voters and Seniors.

The Estate Tax- Kamala Harris wants to push our estate tax to the highest in the world to heavily tax the rich.  That sounds good. Some States also have estate taxes of their own. They say those who oppose it are rich and are trying to get rid of it. Such rhetoric stems from a basic misunderstanding of what it is. The estate tax is a tax on the estate of someone who dies. The assumption is that only the rich pay the tax. However, those who have a large business generally are not affected by the estate tax because they usually incorporate the business and include their children in the business. As a result, the children don’t have to pay any estate tax because the business assets belong to the business and are not considered part of the assets.  The tax hurts family farms and family businesses the most. A farmer may own 1000 acres and leaves it to his children when he dies. His children often have to sell the farm to pay the tax since the farmer probably doesn’t have the savings to pay the tax.  All his money is tied up in land, buildings, and equipment. Not only does the family lose the income from the father (the breadwinner) who dies, they also lose the means to continue earning a living (the farm). The same goes for a man who owns a small business, like a grocery store in a small town. Communities also suffer because many of those businesses in small towns close because they cannot find a buyer. It may be the only grocery store, barber shop, or other business of its kind in the town forcing residents to drive to nearby cities for those services. It also leaves those who work for the business out of work.  Those who are retired generally have most of their assets in money producing stocks which the family has to sell to pay the tax so their children also lose the income.