The article "Taxing Ourselves to Death" forgets to mention that the Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007 (H.R. 3056) that the House of Representatives passed on October 10, if passed by the Senate, and signed by President Bush, will require persons who give up U.S. citizenship or long-term residence to pay a tax on all unrealized gains of their worldwide estate that exceed US$600,000. The gains will be assessed based on the fair market value of the assets and the tax due within 90 days of expatriation.

While I may understand the intent of the legislators to punish un-patrioctic US citizens wanting to abandon the United States for tax reasons, I do not find any logical justification to impose the same "exit tax" on foreigners who have worked and paid taxes in the United States, and have never become US citizens as they have always intended to return to their country of origin. How can the US legislator assume that a foreigner returning "home" would do it for tax reasons? Repatriating is a sacrosanct right of every human being and it should be respected by US legislators and not made prohibitive by the imposition of an exit tax that would force foreigners to liquidate any assets the own worldwide in order to return "home".

The US promotes and supports freedom, civil rights, free trade, patriotism etc. but with this bill it would actually do the opposite. What would the US legislators and citizens say if France, Germany, Italy, Spain etc. would impose the same "exit tax" to US citizens residing there? The content of this bill has not yet received coverage by any media. Personally, I think that most US voters would be shocked to hear what their legislators are trying to do to non-US citizens living in the United States. Foreigners who are considering to move to the United States would also think twice before moving ahead once they know that this country imposes an "exit ticket". Certainly, the already damaged United States' image would not benefit internationally from the passing of this bill.

The United States should want to continue being a leading country where people from all over the world dream about moving to. The imposition of an "exit ticket" would certainly send a bad signal and further contribute to deteriorate the already damaged image of this country internationally. Resident aliens who REPATRIATE should be exempted from this outrageous exit tax.

Milo Argenio