Three years ago I discovered Rena’s alleged husband was recieving subsidies for his cattle ranch.
Republicans are dead set on rolling back taxes for wealthy Americans this fall. High on their list of targets is the estate tax, which is paid on the inheritances of the very wealthiest – only families worth $11 million or more are subject to it.
This is a tax that primarily benefits people in limos. But Republicans have offered a strange populist fig leaf to justify repealing it: images of America’s farmers and ranchers.
The latest astroturf campaign is a slick website and video campaign called “Cattlemen for Tax Reform,” sponsored by the National Beef Cattleman’s Association.
The site features California rancher Kevin Kester, who comes from a line of farmers in the state. Kester says that “trying to figure out how to pass the ranching operation to the next generation” is “the greatest challenge that keeps him up at night.”
The implication is that a tax on his estate would hurt his family business.
And indeed, the Kester family was subject to an estate tax in the 1990s, when the wealth exemptions were considerably lower. But it’s highly unlikely that estate taxes at their current level will pose a threat to continuation of this family enterprise.
Meanwhile, Kester has cashed $365,208 in subsidy checks from the USDA while complaining about the big bad government. https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2017-09-22/republicans-are-falsely-painting-farmers-as-the-face-of-estate-tax-repeal
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