Pure slimeball election year politics

Let's give our wealthy campaign contributors a really BIG tax break and — oh, by the way — throw a few pennies to the poor idiots who have to work for a living. Wait, doesn't that increase the federal deficit? Ah hell, who cares?

HOUSE ESTATE TAX PROPOSAL HAS ESSENTIALLY THE SAME LARGE LONG-TERM COST AS EARLIER VERSION

Phase-Ins Mask Costs, But Underlying Policy Remains Unchanged

by Joel Friedman and Aviva Aron-Dine

Just five weeks after passing legislation that would drastically reduce the estate tax (H.R. 5638), the House of Representatives is considering another estate-tax proposal. The House passed H.R. 5638 in the hope that it would attract the needed 60 votes in the Senate, but Senators who oppose repealing most or all of the estate tax did not embrace the House alternative, viewing it as too costly.

The whole article is here. And there's more:

COMPARING THE HOUSE MINIMUM WAGE AND ESTATE TAX PROPOSALS: Who Benefits and By How Much?

by Joel Friedman and Aviva Aron-Dine

House leaders are following a legislative strategy that involves marrying an increase in the minimum wage to a sharp reduction in the estate tax. This approach juxtaposes policies that are aimed at two groups at opposite ends of the economic spectrum: minimum-wage workers for whom full-time work currently pays $10,700 a year, and individuals who have amassed estates worth millions of dollars over the course of their lives.

The remainder is here.