1st- Most people don’t leave a taxable estate when they die. Only about 5,400 estates – two for every 1,000 deaths – will owe any federal estate tax this year. That’s because most Americans’ life savings fall far short of the amount exempted from estate taxation. That exemption is more than $5 million for an individual and effectively twice that for a married couple. (When one spouse dies, the surviving spouse can receive the couple’s assets tax free along with the decedent’s exemption.)

2nd-The $5 million exemption (plus deductions for charitable contributions and money owed on mortgages and other debt) means that the effective tax rate on the gross value of estates is well below the top statutory tax rate of 40 percent (see chart). Consider a widow with a gross estate of “only” a little over $11 million and an exemption of roughly $10 million. With no other deductions, her estate would owe about $400,000 in tax (40 percent of the non-exempt value), or an effective tax rate of under 4 percent on the $11 million.

3rd-Notwithstanding all the recent hoopla among House Ways and Means Committee Republicans over the estate tax’s burden on small businesses and family farms, only about 20 U.S. small businesses and farms a year owe any federal estate tax at all, according to Tax Policy Center figures.

Repeal advocates say that families are liquidating treasured family businesses and farms right and left to pay the estate tax. That’s a well-documented myth and a red herring. If nothing else, the estate tax contains special provisions, including the option to spread payments over 15 years at low interest rates, for the rare family business or farm lacking the available resources to pay the full tax up front.

Repealers also argue, per the Ways and Means Committee’s blog, that the estate tax doesn’t raise enough money to be “worth the pain and heartache it causes.” In fact, repealers greatly overstate the pain and heartache and understate the revenue loss. Repeal would boost budget deficits over the next 10 years by almost $320 billion (including both revenue losses and interest costs on the debt).

The truth is that repealing the estate tax would mainly benefit the MOST WEALTHIEST among us. In 2016, the wealthiest 1,300 or so estates – those worth $20 million or more – would receive 73 percent of the benefit, with each receiving a tax windfall averaging roughly $10 million, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation’s analysis of the repeal proposal that the Ways and Means Committee approved this week.

A key argument for an estate tax is to back-up the income tax. Without it, much of the money that one generation passes on to the next would never be taxed. That’s because increases in the value of assets like real estate and stocks aren’t subject to income tax until the holder sells the assets. Under current law, any tax liablity for such unrealized capital gains effectively disappears when the assets are transferred through inheritance. Unrealized, untaxed capital gains are a large share of the BIGGEST estates.

Repealers disingenuously call the estate tax a “death tax that hurts small businesses and family farms most of all." BULL CRAP!! In fact, the repealers would boost budget deficits to help the WEALTHIEST among us while, at the same time, they’re adopting a budget that gets most of its budget savings from cutting programs that help the least well-off.

This isn’t about struggling small businesses and family farms. It’s about another huge tax cut for those who need it the least.

Quite a stretch there. You don't figure in Estate Taxes when figuring the budget. At least I wouldn't. Here's a novel idea for you throw someone else's money at everything liberals. How about cutting waste, fraud and duplicate programs from the Federal budget. We have more tax revenue coming in than ever before. Spending someone else's money is not always the answer. Here's how I defend this. It is the family's money, not yours. If you want to stimulate the economy let people keep more of their money and give them policies that entice them to spend it. The difference between you and I on this argument is you think the Bureaucrats in Washington can spend your, mine, dead peoples money more efficiently than the person or persons entitled to it.