Reports of the Death of the Death Tax Greatly Exaggerated

The Obama budget halts the phase out of the Estate Tax, also known as the Death Tax.

If Congress says okay, and with this bunch why wouldn't they, the Death Tax will carry on at 45 percent for estates over $3.5 million. This will represent a tax increase, despite Obama officials' claim to the contrary.

No one has ever been able to convince me that there was any justification for the state to take away a single penny of an estate, let alone a large percentage of it. Some will say that the estate tax only applies to the very wealthy, and I would counter with two points:

1. Why does the government have any greater claim on the accumulated wealth of a man or woman with $3.5 million than it does on another person who only managed to save $3.4 million? Government has already taxed, at multiple levels, the gross income or produce that left this net amount to be saved. Now it wants more? By what reason? That it belongs to society? Bull!

2. It is not difficult for an American farm family to amass estates of $3.5 million. It is also not difficult for farming dynasties to be wiped out due to callous death tax penalties, to the detriment of that part of our economy that actually feeds us.

If you want an interesting read on the morality of the Death Tax, stop by HERE.