Re “Letters: What has become of the Republican Party?” (sacbee.com, Letters, Nov. 27) I am a former Republican who has to agree with letter writer Powell Svendsen’s statement that the only families Republicans value are the rich ones. There is nothing more evident of this than President Donald Trump’s stated goal of eliminating the estate tax, which provides about enough money to run the Veterans Administration. Proponents of this cut call it the “death tax,” and try to snow us by asking if we want to give most of our inheritance to the government after the fact. In the real fact world, the tax does not even apply until a married couple has received over $10.6 million, and is progressive above that. About 5,500 families, some with hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars, have to pay as it now stands. To my knowledge, no wealthy Democrat has ever pushed this legislation. This is payoff to the pay-for-play gang, ironically the very thing that they accused others of doing during the campaign. Only one Republican Senator, Susan Collins of Maine, has spoken up on this issue. At some point, one has to inquire which party really believes in self-responsibility.
Bob Brauns, Folsom
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