The crux of the dispute

All those horrified liberals who are opposing the compromise to keep tax rates at current levels for all Americans are really upset over two things: 1) tax rates on those making over $250,000 per year will not rise; and 2) the estate tax will include a $5,000,000 exemption rather than a $3.5million exemption. The income tax rates on the wealthy cost about $60 billion per year for the next two years. As I have previously noted in other posts, the total cost of the income tax package is much higher, but that is because the bush tax rates benefitted the middle class and the poor much more than they helped the wealthy, so extending the middle class/poor tax rates cost over $250 billion dollars per year. The estate tax exemption amount probably cost less than ten billion dollars per year, but it is generating the biggest upset of all.

The liberal upset with the estate tax levels clearly does not come from the lost revenue for the treasury. Democrats have probably pased appropriations for extra toilet paper that cost more than the extra revenue that the tax as they want it would raise. In truth, the issue is one of pure class warfare. If someone "rich" dies, the government has to take a bigger chunk of his or her money in order to make things fair, or so the Obamacrats believe.

This attitude among the Dems is one which will lead to their defeat. While there are not that many people in America who would leave an estate of over 3.5 million dollars should they expire, there are a great many people who desire or plan to be in that group. People know how hard one has to work to accumulate that sort of wealth. They understand further that what gets accumulated during life has already been taxed by the government. On the whole, the American people do not like the idea of snatching away the fruit of a person's lifetime of work and savings in the name of "social justice".