Why do progs hate the small farmer and rancher?

[Lucille]

The one-two punch of BigAg's Food "Safety" Bill and the Death Tax will surely lead to the demise of even more family farms and ranches. I guess progs won't be happy until every single one of them is wiped out, and all that is left are filthy, fascist corporate farms.

Ranchers, farmers brace for 'death tax' impact
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/16/ranchers-farmers-brace-for-death-tax-impact/


Rancher Kevin Kester works dawn to dusk, drives a 12-year-old pick-up truck and earns less than a typical bureaucrat in Washington D.C., yet the federal government considers him rich enough to pay the estate tax -- also known as the "death tax."

And with that tax set to soar at the beginning of 2013 without some kind of intervention from Congress, farmers and ranchers like Kester are waiting anxiously.

"There is no way financially my kids can pay what the IRS is going to demand from them nine months after death and keep this ranch intact for their generation and future generations," said Kester, of the Bear Valley Ranch in Central California.

Two decades ago, Kester paid the IRS $2 million when he inherited a 22,000-acre cattle ranch from his grandfather. Come January, the tax burden on his children will be more than $13 million.

For supporters of a high estate tax, which is imposed on somebody's estate after death, Kester is the kind of person they rarely mention. He doesn't own a mansion. He's not the CEO of a multi-national. But because of his line of work, he owns a lot of property that would be subject to a lot of tax.

"Our number one goal is to repeal the estate tax, to get rid of it, not have it for every generation, when I die and my kids die and so on," he told Fox News. "For everyone to have to re-purchase the ranch or farm over and over for each generation, that's inherently unjust. So what we're doing is asking our politicians to understand that and repeal the estate tax."

That, however, is unlikely. Currently, the federal government taxes estates worth $5 million dollars and up at 35 percent. When the Bush-era tax rates expire in January, rates increase to 55 percent on estates of $1 million or more. While some Republicans want to eliminate the death tax entirely, President Obama has proposed a 45 percent rate on estates of $3.5 million and up.

"The idea behind the estate tax is to prevent the very wealthy among us from accumulating vast fortunes that they can pass along to the next generation," said Patrick Lester, director of Federal Fiscal Policy with the progressive think tank -- OMB Watch. "The poster child for the estate tax is Paris Hilton -- the celebrity and hotel heiress. That's who this is targeted at, not ordinary Americans."

But according to the American Farm Bureau, up to 97 percent of American farms and ranches will be subject to an estate tax where the exemption is set at $1 million. At that rate, the federal government will pocket $40 billion in 2013 and up to $86 billion in 2021. That contrasts with just $12 billion this year.
[...]
"We're not millionaires in the terms of making a million dollars a year," said Kester who lives in a modest home and whose family -- not outsiders or a corporation -- runs his ranch. "I have a half-a-million dollars in soil."

Kester can't spend it, without selling land. But by selling the land, each year the ranch would become less viable.

[CaptUSA]

You want my cynical take?

They don't like the agrarian thought process. Therefore, they want to make life on them as difficult as possible.

[Dr.3D]

The way I see it, government doesn't like anybody passing wealth down to their offspring. Notice the big push for reverse mortgages?

[heavenlyboy34]

Collectivization of farmland was popular with the Soviets. Good way to control and plan society. Thousands will be forced into poverty and/or starve, but the Fatherland comes first! ;) :(

[Anti Federalist]

They hate anybody that is not "of the Borg".

Look at who has systematically been targeted over the years now: any person that has any level of independence at all.

Independent ranchers, farmers, truckers, commercial fisherman, small business owners, co-ops, loggers, the list is endless.

Until we are all fully dependent and living in the compact city grid, under full surveillance they will not stop.

[Victor Grey]

You want my cynical take?

They don't like the agrarian thought process. Therefore, they want to make life on them as difficult as possible.


They hate anybody that is not "of the Borg".

Look at who has systemactically been targeted over the years now: any person that has any level of independence at all.

Independent ranchers, farmers, truckers, commercial fisherman, small business owners, co-ops, loggers, the list is endless.

Until we are all fully dependent and living in the compact city grid, under full surveillance they will not stop.

Yep, I think that is it.

If all else fails, those people can at the least be able to do the same as your garden variety common mammal.

You know; simply feed themselves.

That is too much for the so-termed progressive mindset, which is built around the foundation worldview of perpetual weakness, and constant sense of persecution.

They'd rather people pay a death tax for having things. That way their supposed "enemy" the well affluent rich, can buy up those properties parceled off in order to pay the tax, and they can perpetuate the sense of inequality. It's easier then to both demagogue, and make for a protected upper-class tax sugardaddy.

Human pets.

[VoluntaryAmerican]

"The poster child for the estate tax is Paris Hilton -- the celebrity and hotel heiress. That's who this is targeted at, not ordinary Americans."

I feel so much safer now that my guberment is going after Paris Hilton. :confused:

These fucking tyrants, make me sick.

[LibertyEagle]

You guy should have heard the guy from some national carbon tax "think tank" on Washington Journal this morning. I sat with my mouth open half the time; I couldn't believe the crap he was spewing. It seemed clear from what he said that the whole carbon tax deal is part of the UN's Agenda 21, right down to him talking about people needing to move in from the rural areas to conserve energy. Energy costs are going to soar from what he said and he was mighty glad about it.

We are in for a rough ride.

[AuH20]

Until these bureacrats are literally driven from the countyside, the games will continue. I hear that some of these federal conservation groups tread very lightly in certain areas in Montana, where the residents don't take too kindly to this type of control.

[anaconda]

Depends on how you approach it. Progs are thrilled to go to the local farmers' markets. So they may easily take exception to big government and big Agribusiness trampling on the small local farmers if approach it from that angle.

[Anti Federalist]

You guy should have heard the guy from some national carbon tax "think tank" on Washington Journal this morning. I sat with my mouth open half the time; I couldn't believe the crap he was spewing. It seemed clear from what he said that the whole carbon tax deal is part of the UN's Agenda 21, right down to him talking about people needing to move in from the rural areas to conserve energy. Energy costs are going to soar from what he said and he was mighty glad about it.

We are in for a rough ride.

No doubt.

And the man made global warming crowd around here won't even admit that the endgame is global government and total control over everbody

[CaptUSA]

One of the reasons I know that Thomas Jefferson had it all figured out was because of his understanding of the agrarian republic. He was even able to justify in his mind some relatively minor inconveniences with his constitutional limitations in order to complete the Louisiana Purchase with its vast swaths of land.

Liberty depends upon it.

Take it away and liberty vanishes. It's incredibly hard to explain without understanding the relationship between liberty, God, nature, and the earth, but in a nutshell, the more densely humans are populated and the less real weatlth to create and exchange, the more calls for government. It's a human nature problem - not just a government problem.

[Anti Federalist]

Depends on how you approach it. Progs are thrilled to go to the local farmers' markets. So they may easily take exception to big government and big Agribusiness trampling on the small local farmers if approach it from that angle.

Pffft...forced to choose between poison and farmer's freedom, your average prog would eat poison.

[ClydeCoulter]

They are jealous, they don't like that other people "inherit" something and they don't. I've heard them say so (although they don't mention the "and I don't" part). They don't see why people should inherit something because they were born into it and others weren't. They don't understand that those that inherit also have worked at it. Maybe they don't understand "working for yourself" or just plain "hard work".

edit: But they don't seem to mind just taking what others have worked for.

[klamath]

Actually progs hate all rural people. You have never heard the contempt and bile until you hear an urban enviromentalist say the word "Inholder"
California progs don't even hide their war anymore. They passed a $150 per house fire abatement "fee" (can't call it a tax or it is in violation of CA constitution) on All rural landowners as our land costs more for fire supression. It does not pay for firefighting though. It does not matter if your house is in the middle of the mojave desert with not a blade of grass for 10 miles you have to pay this "not tax" fire abatement benefit fee. The people that don't have to pay are the democratic urban areas.....

[GunnyFreedom]

The fulfillment of Agenda 21 requires the destruction of small independent farms, leaving only a handful of Big Ag players, because all human habitation must be corralled into megacity population centers leaving the vast majority of land as "greenways."

[Icymudpuppy]

There's a simple workaround for this. SELL the property to your children as a trade for services rendered with a use clause.

It's kind of like the simple work around for Income tax. Invest all your profits back into the business and you won't have any profits to tax. OR you can donate what you would pay in taxes to a charity of your choice.

The federal government only profits from lazy people.

[blustreeak]

Here is an idea. Just don't report the father's death. Have one of the children learn all the father's details then take over as the "father" when he dies.

[anaconda]

Pffft...forced to choose between poison and farmer's freedom, your average prog would eat poison.

I'm telling ya, the Saturday Berkeley farmers' market is a total metaphor for the progressive self image of people around here..

[amy31416]

You guy should have heard the guy from some national carbon tax "think tank" on Washington Journal this morning. I sat with my mouth open half the time; I couldn't believe the crap he was spewing. It seemed clear from what he said that the whole carbon tax deal is part of the UN's Agenda 21, right down to him talking about people needing to move in from the rural areas to conserve energy. Energy costs are going to soar from what he said and he was mighty glad about it.

We are in for a rough ride.

I have to get a fireplace/cookstation installed, stat. Perhaps some meat chickens as well. :(

[A Son of Liberty]

Well, now I'm going to have to get myself thoroughly educated on Agenda 21... and I suspect it will cost me a friend or two, after I learn what I learn... and I also suspect, as a new owner of a decent piece of land, that I will find my line in the sand.

[GunnyFreedom]

Well, now I'm going to have to get myself thoroughly educated on Agenda 21... and I suspect it will cost me a friend or two, after I learn what I learn... and I also suspect, as a new owner of a decent piece of land, that I will find my line in the sand.

Good call. A21 is wicked wicked stuff. People WILL call you crazy for opposing 'sustainability,' like you want the Earth to die or something. That's how they frame it, by the way, if you oppose A21, then you oppose sustaining the Earth, therefore you want the Earth to die. Good luck!

[Lucille]

Analysis: Democrats' discord undercuts Obama estate tax push
http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-democrats-discord-undercuts-obama-estate-tax-push-060748173--sector.html


...Democratic Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said this week, however, that he wants to hold the estate tax steady at current rates.

Baucus is up for re-election in 2014 from Montana. He says ranch and farm owners in his state would stand to lose if federal taxes rose on passing property to heirs.

"Rural Montana is much different than urban America," Baucus told Reuters in a brief interview in the U.S. Capitol.

He told a Montana newspaper on Sunday that he would even support scrapping the estate tax altogether, as most Republicans favor. A spokesman for Baucus - the Senate's top tax law writer - said he will seek as much estate tax "relief" as he can get.

At least three other rural-state Democratic senators have proposed extending current estate tax rates: Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

Spokesmen for Pryor and McCaskill said everything is on the table as Congress struggles to deal with the "fiscal cliff."

But one thing is clear: the voice of farming lobbyists is registering with Democrats on the volatile estate tax issue, although it is only marginally about farms and ranches.

BEYOND FARMS AND RANCHES

The estate tax's impact extends beyond farmers and ranchers. It applies mostly to very wealthy Americans, whose taxes have been specifically targeted for increase by a president whom voters returned to the White House just three weeks ago following a tough campaign in which taxes were a key topic.

Of the 3,600 estates subject to the estate tax this year, only 100 are classified as farming estates, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans pay nearly all of the estate tax under current rates, according to the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan fiscal policy think tank.

The number of estates subject to the tax would double under the plan proposed by Obama. About 300 farming estates would be subject to the tax under Obama's terms, which would raise about $100 billion in new revenue for the government over 10 years.

Republicans have benefited previously from Democratic division over the tax. In July, Senate Democrats shelved a plan to raise the estate tax with a symbolic extension of the Bush tax rates for the middle-class.

A senior Senate Democratic aide said the tax was pulled from the bill because Obama felt strongly about boosting the tax. It is unclear how hard he will fight for his position this time.

100B over ten years? The govt spend that in what, ten days?

It's just unbelievable to me what accomplished liars Democrats are. We see it play out over and over with the alleged party of the little guy. The poor and middle class, and the oldsters on fixed incomes are being destroyed by the vicious and regressive inflation tax, small businesses are being buried by mounds of dumb, new regulations and soaring taxes, the cost of medical care and coverage are skyrocketing, and now, even after BigAg's Food "Safety" Bill, they want to take another shot at the small farmer and rancher.

[amy31416]

The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans pay nearly all of the estate tax under current rates, according to the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan fiscal policy think tank.


Oh man, this statement is so incredibly misleading. I paid a hell of a lot of estate taxes and I could hardly be considered wealthy before or after inheritance.

[LibertyEagle]

Good call. A21 is wicked wicked stuff. People WILL call you crazy for opposing 'sustainability,' like you want the Earth to die or something. That's how they frame it, by the way, if you oppose A21, then you oppose sustaining the Earth, therefore you want the Earth to die. Good luck!

Yup. Agenda21 is so thick where I live and most people are too ignorant to see the danger.

[GunnyFreedom]

Yup. Agenda21 is so thick where I live and most people are too ignorant to see the danger.

Yeah, our new governor elect liked to say during his campaign that "I vehemently oppose Agenda 21" and "I wholeheartedly support sustainable development" in the same breath. Being a serious champion of ICLEI-backed measures during his tenure as mayor of Charlotte, his doubletalk won him the Tea Party vote of people who (allegedly) hate Agenda 21.

[Bossobass]

I would like to know what the Rockefeller foundations will owe the IRS when Davey dies?

Ranchers (and everyone else) need to stop whining to Congress, et al, (a complete waste of time) and just copy the guys who pay nothing. Private Family Foundation, Family Trust and many more avenues are available to step out of the way of the runaway debt burden-fueled revenue freight train that's about to change the face of the earth forever.

[John F Kennedy III]

They hate anybody that is not "of the Borg".

Look at who has systematically been targeted over the years now: any person that has any level of independence at all.

Independent ranchers, farmers, truckers, commercial fisherman, small business owners, co-ops, loggers, the list is endless.

Until we are all fully dependent and living in the compact city grid, under full surveillance they will not stop.

This ^

[BAllen]

Well, now I'm going to have to get myself thoroughly educated on Agenda 21... and I suspect it will cost me a friend or two, after I learn what I learn... and I also suspect, as a new owner of a decent piece of land, that I will find my line in the sand.

Tragic, isn't it? I know all too well of these sad choices.
My brother thinks farmers should pay a pollution tax for animal waste, and it's okay to vandalize a Hummer because people have no right to spend their money that way. My father thinks no one should have more than 20,000 dollars. My sister said she's a pinko commie, and she's become a social worker. It's heartbreaking. I couldn't bear to spend any time with them this Thanksgiving.
:(

[Pericles]

I would like to know what the Rockefeller foundations will owe the IRS when Davey dies?

Ranchers (and everyone else) need to stop whining to Congress, et al, (a complete waste of time) and just copy the guys who pay nothing. Private Family Foundation, Family Trust and many more avenues are available to step out of the way of the runaway debt burden-fueled revenue freight train that's about to change the face of the earth forever.

There has to be substantial income to cover the admin costs of trusts that hold substantial assets to pay off the required audits and such fees for "independent" trustees ...

The real issue is that not enough tyrants have been shot in recent history, so that such actions are in the collective memory, and the realization that tyranny carries personal risk to the tyrants.

[gerryb1]

It's kind of like the simple work around for Income tax. Invest all your profits back into the business and you won't have any profits to tax. OR you can donate what you would pay in taxes to a charity of your choice.


I guess you don't own a business?

[gerryb1]

Ranchers (and everyone else) need to stop whining to Congress, et al, (a complete waste of time) and just copy the guys who pay nothing. Private Family Foundation, Family Trust and many more avenues are available to step out of the way of the runaway debt burden-fueled revenue freight train that's about to change the face of the earth forever.

Except for people who only make 50k-1mil a year - the expense of this is completely out of the ball park.

[Anti Federalist]

Tragic, isn't it? I know all too well of these sad choices.
My brother thinks farmers should pay a pollution tax for animal waste, and it's okay to vandalize a Hummer because people have no right to spend their money that way. My father thinks no one should have more than 20,000 dollars. My sister said she's a pinko commie, and she's become a social worker. It's heartbreaking. I couldn't bear to spend any time with them this Thanksgiving.
:(

Whew...get a new family maybe.

[Icymudpuppy]

I guess you don't own a business?

I do. I have a wildlife damage control business. In about two weeks I'll run a projection of my annual tax return. If it looks like I'm going to owe any money to the feds, I buy a truck, or a few rifles, or a shop, or some advertising, or stock up on commonly used materials, or sponsor a local peewee team or donate to the animal shelters, or heck, the Salvation Army is always accepting donations at Christmastime, before the end of the fiscal year to show a poverty level income. The feds won't get a penny from me.

[acptulsa]

Why do the progs hate family farmers? They don't. They love family farmers. They go to farmers' markets and go nuts over what the family farmers do. But like most progs, they're urban, and the family farmers are rural, so the progs are smarter than the farmers. What's more, the Monsanto Media tells the progs what's sustainable, so the progs assume they know better than the fourth, fifth, and sixth generations of the families that have made the Breadbasket of the World tick for a century and a half what sustainable is. In other words, progs are notoriously easy for corporations to manipulate. So, the progs set out to defend the family farmer from Monsanto, and because they're half ignorant, mostly propagandized, and going off half cocked, they wind up defending Monsanto from the family farmer.

With friends like today's progressives, who needs enemies?