Angry Over the Estate Tax

Lawrence Kudlow is so upset that we did not get a permanent elimination of the estate tax that he’s doing his best imitation of Ann Coulter. There’s not much substance in his latest rant, but I did manage to find this:

We now tax their incomes as salary, corporate profits, dividends, capital gains, and at death. But we must do better.

Hmm – income defined as labor income (salary) plus capital income (which includes both dividends and capital gains). Now if actually did tax all capital income at the same rate as labor income and taxed at when it accrues, we would be doing better. But Kudlow’s “investor class” cronies oppose such sensible tax reform as they prefer deferral gimmicks and favorable rates as to the taxation of capital income. Take a deep breathe Larry before you propose a sensible tax reform that I might actually agree with.