It seems like the Chazer caucus has backed off its attempt to repeal the estate tax–at least for now. But, I thought this chart from my friends at the Economic Policy Institute would make it crystal clear why it is complete nonsense to believe that the estate tax hurts poor farmers or folks like you and me.
As you can see, the burden to those people whose estates are under one million is ZERO. That’s zip, nada, nothing. And even when you get up to a maximum of $2.5 million, only 5.1 percent of the people subject to the estate tax fall into that bracket–and their rate of taxation on the total estate is less than 6 percent.

This is a tax on rich people. And none of our hearts should bleed for people who have to pay some money back to the public on fortunes that were almost always made with the help of some public investment: public roads that lead to the factories or businesses they owned or public education systems that provided the rich with skilled workers, to cite a few examples.