The founding fathers never intended for congress to have RETIREMENT PLANS.....take that away and see if they can find the time to get things done.
While I think the ability of the government to tax, post tax dollars, is inexcusable, the estate tax is easily defeated with the use of a trust. A trust is a continuing entity that will never die and be subject to the tax. If someone has $1,000,000 in assets or more, they would be foolish not to plan for their demise in a similar fashion.