The war or Social Security are irrelevant in this discussion. The issue is black and white - Should the government have the right to take your property when you die? The answer, plain and simple, is no. The estate tax is a property tax, plain and simple. Regardless of the fiscal issues at hand, this tax is the most egregious tax on our books, bar none. The tax does hurt small businesses and particularly hurts family farms and ranches because these family owned business are often what we call "asset rich and cash poor." Think about it this way - If a family owns a 1,000 acre farm valued at $3,500/acre, he has $3.5 million in assets right off the top. With tax rates as high as 55%, his heirs could have to cough up hundreds of thousands up to millions of dollars to pay the tax, with potentially no cash in the estate. This is just one of hundreds of examples of why the estate tax is wrong and must be abolished at the earliest possible juncture. The Hiltons and Gateses and Waltons of the world are also irrelevent - It is documentable fact that these folks already pay the lions share of the tax burden in this country. Finally, the posts above simply misquote fact in saying that the estate tax doesn't kick in until $2million or above - the base law exempts estates under $1million. Any way you slice it, this tax should be dead on arrival. It is a liberal device to transfer wealth. Wealth redistribution has never worked on this planet: ask the residents of Sherwood Forrest or Commuist Nations.