Death as I do, not as I say

Timothy Carney writing in the Washington Examiner shows that politicians are people too;

A survey by an industry magazine in 2011 found that 63 percent of estate-planning attorneys opposed repeal of the estate tax.

Understandable, as estate taxes can be avoided, or at least minimized, by employing estate planning attorneys. And;

Lobbying disclosure forms show that the insurance industry is lobbying on the issue these days. The Association for Advanced Life Underwriting, which represents companies that sell estate-planning products, lobbied on the issue last year, as it has for years. Last decade, AALU funded a group called the Coalition for America's Priorities, which attacked estate tax repeal as a tax break for Paris Hilton.

AALU knows how to operate. They hired the lobbying firm Ricchetti Incorporated, that is Steve Ricchetti, who has served in the inner circles of the Clinton and Obama administrations. Also;

Last decade, one of the champions of the death tax was Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. During Republican attempts at repeal in 2005, Dorgan said "the purpose of this issue is to say to the richest, the wealthiest Americans, we want to help you."

Which included Dorgan and his wife, who is herself a lobbyist for the American Council of Life Insurers. Guess where they stand on repeal of the estate tax. And what story of politicians' hypocrisy would be complete without;

The Clintons may be stupid-rich, but they aren't stupid — they're using estate-planning techniques to avoid the estate tax. Bloomberg News reported in 2014 that the Clinton family home has been divided, for tax purposes, into two shares, and those shares have been placed in a special trust that will shield Chelsea from having to pay the estate tax on the full value of the home when she inherits it. Also, the Clintons have created a life insurance trust — a common tool wealthy people use to provide liquidity for heirs to pay the estate tax.