e shows the type of power and influence that the rich have in this country, in the private sector and in the government itself. As far as timing is concerned, the timing could not be better for legislation like this. We are in a period of American history in which we have never seen so many people with personal and business assets totaling over $1 million dollars. Will the legislation help them? Yes, but with careful estate planning the average citizen can avoid paying estate taxes. The obscenely rich cannot avoid such taxes, their estates are just too large. According to Cornelius M. Kerwin in his book Rulemaking, effects of rules/legislation are very closely monitored. He says, "These effects are determined by the balance of benefits and costs"(Kerwin-116-7). When discussing this legislation it is obvious what the costs and benefits are. The cost goes to the American people, how? There is now a shortage in the revenue stream of, when fully phased in of about $50 billion dollars, Congress will have to make up the difference somewhere, most likely with new taxes. The benefit goes to that small majority of farmers and small-business owners the repeal was intended to help and to the thousands of ridiculously wealthy individuals and the politicians who no longer have to worry about Uncle Sam taking their money when they die. My personal opinion is that the repeal of the federal estate taxes is not a positive move. It robs our government of much needed revenue and helps the rich get richer. As it is pointed out in one of the New York Times articles more and more wealthy families will be inclined to leave greater amounts of money to their families and less to museums and charities. So we can see that not just the government will hurt but other parts of our system may be affected as well. Paul Krugman sums up my feeling very well in this line, "The truth is that the vote to repeal the inheritance tax was just an unusually blatant demonstr...
