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The estate tax is a vile, confiscatory method of extracting the sweat and blood of a family and re-distributing it to a bloated welfare system.

Yes, all taxes are vile to some extent. Since conservatives allegedly agree that the federal budget should be balanced, the choice we are faced with is raising the estate tax or increasing other taxes like payroll and income taxes. I prefer increasing estate taxes and energy taxes rather than increases in the payroll and income taxes.

BTW, the estate tax isn't just a hypothetical for me. When my father passed away 4 years ago, his estate paid over $20K in state inheritance taxes and federal estate taxes. Unfortunately our family doesn't have immense inherited wealth like the Bushes. If we did, I wouldn't object to paying millions in estate taxes in order to balance the federal budget and to reduce other taxes.

Since conservatives allegedly agree that the federal budget should be balanced, the choice we are faced with is raising the estate tax or increasing other taxes like payroll and income taxes."

Ah, Liberal math: The only choice is to raise taxes.
The *other* choice not mentioned is to simply stop growing the Government faster than the economy. ... "It's the spending stupid!"
If we simple kept Federal Government spending at a "mere" $2,300 billion a year for the next 4 years, the deficit would go away WITHOUT TAX INCREASES and WITH making the Bush tax cuts permanent.

Since conservatives allegedly agree that the federal budget should be balanced, the choice we are faced with is raising the estate tax or increasing other taxes like payroll and income taxes.

God forbid reducing spending.