Taking from the rich to give to the boomers

"While Baby Boomers prepare to pour upon the nation a Niagara of payment-due slips for Social Security and Medicare, we have the Bush administration and most congressional Republicans still trying to repeal the estate tax _ already reduced in recent years. The latest legislative effort has failed, and that's a good thing. (The priorities in current congressional debate have certainly been curious: same-sex marriage, flag burning, relieving the rich of their onerous burdens.) The estate tax accounts for only about 1.5 percent of all federal tax revenue, but its repeal would result in an estimated $800 billion lost between 2012 and 2020: nothing to sniff at. As things stand now, the middle class will have to disproportionately make up this shortfall. Give the billionaires a tax break and then borrow the money to cover a budget deficit that would yawn still wider." "The Fairest Tax" Scripps Howard News Service The Providence Journal Editorial