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The Big Picture: Estate Tax

The Big Picture

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

To prevent the rise of a new aristocracy, we need to raise the estate tax—a tax on inherited wealth. And we need to do it now.

The richest 1 percent of Americans hold 42 percent of our nation’s wealth.1 We haven’t seen this concentration of wealth since the Gilded Age of the late 1800s. Raising the estate tax on the wealthiest Americans is one way to fight back against growing inequality.

Yet some lawmakers in Congress actually want to eliminate the tax on inherited wealth.

Well, that’s just crazy.   What if Congress restored the estate tax to the level it was in the late 1990s? Watch Raise the Estate Tax to see how much revenue that would generate, and what that new revenue stream could fund.

Raise the Estate Tax is the latest in the “Big Picture” series I’m working on with MoveOn. And MoveOn members will campaign together on the ideas that we’re all most excited about.

If you believe we need to tackle growing inequality—and we need to do it now—you won’t want to miss watching and sharing this video.

Thanks for all you do.

–Robert Reich

P.S. This is the eighth idea in our “Big Picture” series. In case you missed the first seven, once you’ve watched Raise the Estate Tax, be sure to check out the rest of the videos. Remember, by watching and then sharing individual “Big Picture” videos, you’re showing that you’re excited about a particular idea—which will help us hone in on what to work on in the coming months.

Source:

1. “How Unequal We Are: The Top 5 Facts You Should Know About The Wealthiest One Percent Of Americans,” Think Progress, October 3, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=304637&id=118938-26975332-vEnulQx&t=2