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Republicans Just Re-Introduced a Bill to Give the Wealthiest Americans Another Tax Cut, Because of Course They Did

So on-brand.

Republicans Just Re-Introduced a Bill to Give the Wealthiest Americans Another Tax Cut, Because of Course They Did
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 10: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (2nd L) speaks as Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) (R), Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) (L) and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) (3rd L) listen during a news briefing after a weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon October 10, 2018 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Senate Republicans held a policy luncheon to discuss GOP agenda. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Republicans want to give the wealthiest Americans another tax cut. On Monday, Senate Republicans, led by Senator John Thune, announced that they would push legislation to repeal federal estate tax.

Estate tax only applies to estates worth more than $22 million and is paid by fewer than 2000 Americans each year.


President Trump signed a law in 2017 that doubled the number of exemptions to the estate tax, but Republicans want the tax eliminated altogether.

Thune, who refers to the tax as "death tax," says that the people impacted are "agricultural legacies" such as family-owned farms and ranches. "I remain committed to removing roadblocks for these family businesses, and we can start by repealing the death tax once and for all."

The bill probably won't become law in the next two years; the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has said before that eliminating the estate tax would only help the very rich, many of whom are already exempt from the tax.