[voletti]

OK.
A barf alert is in order here, perhaps.

[keithtoo]

I used to read this paltry magazine until I got sick of their socialist control-freak preaching. BusinessWeek is a liberal rag.

Don't let the name fool you B'week is as liberal as The Village Voice.

[Man50D]

There's a bill before Congress titled "The Fair Tax Act" (H.R. 25 and S. 25)that will not only eliminate the death/estate tax but will also eliminate all federal taxes. More information can be found at http://www.fairtax.org

[xcamel]

But..But..But...

"The Death Tax only effects the uber-super-duper rich....." (parroted by nearly every demonrat in washington)

Yeah, exactly like death only effects the living (well).

Estate taxes kill family businesses, by forced liquidation of assets at fire sale prices, to pay the pigs in washington.

The Death Tax Must DIE!

[Wiseghy]

$255 would not pay for much of a funeral. It is an archaic benefit that mostly just confuses people. Even the poorest could afford a tiny $5k term life policy, please!

[jdsteel]

The estimated annual cost: in excess of $50 billion in 2012, rising to more than $70 billion by 2016.

This must be a misprint. They MUST meant to have said "The estimated savings to American taxpayers would be in excess of $50 billion......" ;-)

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

BUSINESSWEEK = FINANCIAL NEWSWEEK

[TChris]

The estate tax is double taxation. It taxes money which has already been taxed. It never should have been allowed to pass.

[Jim Noble]

Here's a dose of reality:

A nation with a 2,700 billion dollar budget (JFK's last budget was 99 billion) and 60 trillion dollars of future obligations is going to pay lots of taxes-lots, and lots, and lots of taxes.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

[bk1000]

This author is a moron. More than a few people have had to sell the family farm to pay death tax.

[Lancey Howard]

I liked nearly everything I read until I got to this:

The estimated annual cost: in excess of $50 billion in 2012, rising to more than $70 billion by 2016.

"The estimated annual cost:"?? What on earth is this putz talking about?

I also don't like Bush's plan of "boosting premiums for high-income seniors". Does he want to place a target on the backs of people who worked their behinds off their whole lives and made success stories out of themselves? Sounds like something the scumbag socialist Democrats would propose.

[InterceptPoint]

The estimated annual cost: in excess of $50 billion in 2012, rising to more than $70 billion by 2016.

Well Marx would probably call it a "cost" but here in America we call it "savings". A billion that doesn't go to the government certainly cannot be classified as a cost. Definitely a savings.