Dylan
Ratigan, who anchors the afternoon program, concurred with the
acrimonious former Rhodes scholar that there is an entrenched
aristocracy in America that needs to be rooted out: "The premise behind
this country was, as Chrystia was saying, you need some mechanism to
break the landed gentry, the Rothschild dynasty."
When Lewis, a conservative commentator, made the argument that it is
unfair for the government to tax people for dying, Freeland snapped back
with a truly bizarre claim: "You're not being taxed for dying. Because
you're dead actually, so you're not paying the tax."
Instead of addressing the spirit of Lewis's argument, Freeland opted to
split hairs and resume admonishing those undeserving trust-fund babies
who are "handed a silver spoon."
Throughout the debate, Freeland simply could not comprehend why
Republicans think it's immoral to steal one man's inheritance to fund
another man's welfare program.
A partial transcript of the segment can be found below:
MSNBC
Dylan Ratigan Show
December 15, 2010
4:18 p.m. EST
DYLAN RATIGAN: Are we wrong to debate this, though, without considering
that we're borrowing a trillion dollars to do it? And should the debate
be if we're going to borrow another trillion dollars is the best way to
spend these tax cuts or should there be some higher output use of a
borrowed trillion?
CHRYSTIA FREELAND, Reuters global editor-at-large: No, for sure and
it's also where do the cute come from? The thing that I have the most
sympathy for in the criticism of this compromise is the estate tax. I
just don't understand the logic of the big Republican push for that. Why
is it so important that people who are inheriting five million
dollars-that's a lot of money-get a real tax break for that?
MATT LEWIS, Politics Daily: The philosophy says if you earned
something, you paid taxes on it when you earned it. Now you're paying
taxes on it when you die.
FREELAND: I thought the philosophy was against a landed gentry. I
thought the philosophy was against an aristocracy. I thought the
American way was you build it yourself and everyone was born equal and
has a chance to do it.
(Crosstalk )
LEWIS: Instead of having an inheritance tax, if there was an income tax
on the person receiving it. I mean this goes to fundamental change.
FREELAND: I suspect the Republicans would not be excited about that idea.
LEWIS: There's just zero chance that I'm going to have a problem with
the estate tax. I would need to make five million dollars before it
would affect me and I'm still against it as a matter of philosophy.
FREELAND: Why?
LEWIS: Because it's my money, not the government's. If I earned it, I
already paid taxes on it once. For them to then tax me for dying.
FREELAND: You're not being taxed for dying. Because you're dead
actually, so you're not paying the tax. I don't believe that dead people
can pay taxes. I think it's your heirs who pay the taxes. And actually,
I don't think that people being handed a silver spoon is something
that's good for society to do or actually even for their parents to do. I
think it's really really destructive to the fabric of America.
LEWIS: I actually would not leave them a big inheritance. I don't think
it's good for them. But that's my decision. That's not up for the
government to decide.
RATIGAN: To stay with the estate tax, one of the premises behind the
departure from Western Europe of the immigrants was that you had a
landed gentry, an aristocracy, where all of the money was with people,
four, five, six generations, who had no incentive to invest that money,
no incentive to do anything with that money. In fact they may not have
any ideas as to what to do with it. The premise behind this country was,
as Chrystia was saying, you need some mechanism to break the landed
gentry, the Rothschild dynasty that was leading to the extraction in
Western Europe. And isn't the premise behind the estate tax not to tax
somebody-and again, I'm the last person to say listen let's give the
government more money-but if the fundamental of capitalism is based on
those principles, doesn't it make sense to not let capital pool up with
people who have no incentive to invest it or do anything with it?
FREELAND: And who didn't earn it, actually! They were just born-it's
the lucky sperm club, right? I don't think American wealth should be
determined by that.
LEWIS: I do think that there are people that have very good intentions
who really think that when you have a society with very rich people and
very poor people, that's actually dangerous. It's dangerous for
everybody, including the rich people. Having said that, America is still
the land of opportunity-
FREELAND: But how is an estate tax opportunity? An estate tax is the opposite of opportunity!
-Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
