IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Death, Taxes And A Very Bad Budget

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Death, Taxes And A Very Bad Budget: "For the Obama administration, a year without an estate tax is a terrible thing to waste.

If you actually read the budget, which few do, particularly congressmen, you find this footnote on Page 127: '(T)he estate tax is maintained at its 2009 parameters.'

The first Bush tax cut has been, in effect, repealed — part of the age of 'fairness' we now all inhabit.

We are determined to keep or raise the capital gains tax, for example, even though to do so would lose revenues. As President Obama said when it was explained to him, we should still do it in the name of fairness.

It is the same with what many call the death tax. You can't take it with you, but the government can take it from you in the name of fairness and spreading the wealth, your wealth, around."

A new study by the American Family Business Foundation, written by economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, finds that the death tax is responsible for lowering overall employment by 1.5 million jobs. It takes capital out of the productive hands of entrepreneurs' descendants and heirs and into the unproductive hands of government.