Republican Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich tells a crowd of supporters in Minnesota: “In addition on taxes, we would abolish the ‘death tax’ permanently because we believe that it is very, very important that people who work hard are allowed to keep what they earn.”
Gingrich is referring to the inheritance tax. He apparently is asserting that the children of the dead worked hard for their parents money. The crowd of several hundred supporters applauded enthusiastically. They weren't the only ones who apparently missed the gaffe. Many other media covering the event failed to report Gingrich's strange estate tax logic.
Gingrich had some other interesting statements during his speech in Bloomington, MN.
On capital gains he had two plans for capital gains tax rate which right now is about 15%. First cut it to zero… and then reduce it to 12.5%.
More Gingrich video and humor, intentional and not, after the jump.
“Just to show you how you jump start creating jobs. One, we would have zero capital gains tax so that hundreds of billions of dollars would pour into the US, because we’d be the best place to invest in the world. And the number of new businesses would be amazing.
“Two, we would reduce the capital gains tax to 12 and a half percent, which is the Irish rate. That would make it better even than the Canadian tax rate at 12 and a half percent, 700 billion dollars of tied up profit would come home from overseas. Our companies could compete anywhere in the world effectively. And I say to my liberal friends, General Electric would actually pay taxes at that rate.”
Gingrich did try to be intentionally funny. He made light of a recent Saturday Night Live skit that poked fun at his plan to put thousands of people on the moon. He said being made fun of is a small price to pay for “bold solutions”.
“I think we need bold solutions across the board. I think we need the courage to go back out and even risk having Saturday Night Live make fun of us. And frankly ….
“I’m going to double down on my bet. Someday I want to see Saturday Night Live broadcast from the moon. ”
Full video of Gingrich’s speech at The UpTake