Real Businesses Real Jobs Real Death Tax Burden
By Dick Patten
If you are like me, you may find that a lot of "politics" seems rather abstract and distant from the lives of everyday Americans. Most people have trouble understanding the technicalities of Senate "amendment trees" and how the financial reform bill affects credit default swaps.
That's what makes the Death Tax different - the impact is clear and concrete. A business owner's family and heirs will owe a 55% Death Tax liability. They often have to pay the tax by selling the business.
Selling the business means losing a family's dream and destroying jobs.
You and I know it, and that's why we fight it. We have a concrete, visible goal:
No more confiscated family businesses and farms.
No more destroyed jobs. No more Death Tax.
Unfortunately, Congress continues to ignore the Death Tax's concrete impact. That's where you and I come in - we make the tax a concrete electoral issue.
AFBI is busy inviting candidates to sign our Death Tax Repeal Pledge. Once a candidate has signed our pledge, we offer to hold a public signing ceremony to generate some favorable publicity for the candidate.
Then, in January 2011, after these candidates have been elected to the 111th Congress, they will be in the leadership of the legislative drive to repeal the Death Tax.
As of today, over 190 candidates have signed the pledge. We expect to crest 200 by the end of the month.
Of these candidates are incumbent U.S. Senators.
Are running for targeted Senate or House races.
Our most recent signers include Pat Toomey and Marco Rubio - challengers to former Republican party nominees. AFBI leads the fight for repeal wherever it leads, including the front door of sellouts.
For the candidates who have signed the pledge or are running against a signer, the Death Tax is a concrete political issue. Voters will judge them on the Death Tax issue.
Our media campaign will remind them of that this fall......if we have sufficient funding.
Will you help us earn publicity for the signers of the Death Tax Repeal Pledge by donating here?
AFBI is planning a massive media campaign this summer and fall. It will consist of:
Public pledge signings
Television ads
Op-eds and letter-to-the-editors
Radio appearances
Press releases
These projects continuously educate voters, and in turn, remind Congress that the Death Tax is an electoral issue. Our pledge campaign with full media can change the nature of a Congressional election.
To run this campaign, we have budgeted a total of $159,675. This includes a minimal monthly publicity cost of $2,623. If we buy advertising on TV, of course, it will be thousands more dollars.
That's a lot of money.
This is an important job.
In order to keep this campaign going at full steam ahead, can you help me by paying for a month of the routine publicity cost? That's $2,623 for one month, and I need six more months of publicity. Can you help me get there by giving a generous donation of $2,623? Or if not the full amount, can you send $500, $250, $100 or whatever you can?
With your help, we will remind Congress that the Death Tax is a concrete issue - both for the family businesses it destroys and the Senators and Representatives who vote to keep it.
