Sen. Jeff Sessions is a fucking vulture

This kind of thing just makes me sick to my stomach:

Federal troops aren't the only ones looking for bodies on the Gulf Coast. On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions' legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky's voice mail: "[Arizona Sen.] Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with."

...

It's been hard. Only a tiny percentage of people are affected by the estate tax—in 2001 only 534 Alabamans were subject to it. And for Hill backers of repeal, that's only part of the problem. Last year, the tax brought in $24.8 billion to the federal government. With Katrina's cost soaring, estate tax opponents need to find a way to make up the potential lost income. For now, getting repeal back on the agenda may depend on Apolinsky and his team of estate-sniffing sleuths, who are searching Internet obituaries among other places. Has he found any victims of both the hurricane and the estate tax? "Not yet," Apolinsky says. "But I'm still looking."

What the fuck is wrong with these people? Obviously in the face of the largest natural disaster ever on American soil, the important people are the 2,000 or so that have to pay the estate tax! Seriously, Sessions and his ilk are some morbid people, looking to use a dead body to further their tax cut agenda instead of caring about what happens to their fellow Americans. Personally, I think that should be grounds for dismissal from the Senate. If you can't care a whit about your countrymen, how can you be an honest legislator? But that's not my choice.

What I can do, however, is point out how horrible a human being Sen. Sessions is and try to at least shame him (if he has any) into doing something constructive with his position.

Comments

[Red Tory]

Another so-called "fiscal conservative" who's been asleep at the wheel for the past five years. Gee, I wonder whatever could have roused them from their long, blissful slumber? Could it be that the enormous appropriations are going to poor/black folks in the South? Creatures like Sessions are utterly disgusting.

[JayAckroyd]

I wouldn't bet on any of those victims owing the estate tax. The combination of having enough wealth to owe the tax and being unable to get out creates a very small subset.

Don't let this story die. Just as the University of Iowa professor who tried and failed to find ONE case of a family farm sold to pay the estate tax, Sessions probably won't find anybody.

That's how screwed up the exemption is. It applies to almost nobody, and those it applies to (whether the person who died or the heirs) obviously can afford to give something back to the society that permitted their accumulation of great wealth.