LeftBlog: Republicans hold minimum wage hostage for the ‘Paris Hilton estate tax cut’

Greetings, all.

Senator David Vitter and Congressman Charles Boustany are completely out of touch with Louisiana and nothing illustrates this more than their recent votes with regard to the push for repeal of the Paris Hilton “estate tax” via the Estate Tax and Extension of Tax Relief Act of 2006 (H.R.5970).

They would rather help less than 100 multi-millionaires a year than to help the hundred thousand plus of working poor of this state.

In my opinion, this last round of votes on this issue takes their distain for the working poor of this country to new heights. Since Boustany is proudly on the record at a town hall meeting here in Lafayette where he stated “I won’t support an increase in minimum wage…” , it is obvious that he didn’t vote YES for this bill for the minimum wage increase – instead he voted to repeal the tax cuts to the Paris Hiltons of the country.

Let’s make this clear. The Estate Tax has been modified in the past few years which addresses inflation and also exempts in most cases family businesses and farms. Make no mistake this administration and these Republicans would rather protect the assets of Paris Hilton than those of the working poor. The facts are clear; in 2004 only 91 deaths in Louisiana resulted in estates being taxed.

Louisiana is now ranked 50th in the country for PER CAPITA INCOME; that is we are the lowest paid workers of the country. And our republican representation KILLS the minimum wage increase to protect the ultra rich by attaching the poison pill of repeal/reducing the estate tax.

More Hypocrisy – You can look at this one of two ways, in my view... Read the Full Column