2 Things that are certain in life: Death and Taxes.

For the most part, we only have control over the tax part. As Congressional Democrats work on an overhaul of the tax system, one thing seems to be clear. There will not be any discussion or debate about repealing the Death Tax. Forget that those hit have already paid an income tax,property tax and of course sales tax. In 2011 the Death Tax takes over 50 percent of any inheritance over $1 million. Think about all the family farms in the Mid-West and the West. They basically have to give the government half of what they own. 50% is an awful lot to take from farmers who aren't exactly growing money to begin with.
In 2001, Congress voted to fully and permanently repeal the death tax in 2010. Due to arcane Senate budget rules, the death tax returns in 2011 in full force. With one stroke past Midnight, the death tax rate will climb from 0% to 55%. Estates worth more than $1 million—not much when homes, small businesses, and family farms are totaled—will face this tax.

The death tax "hasn't been part of the discussions," the aide said of the closely guarded "mother" of all tax reform bills being written by committee Chairman Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat. Those two words in bold don't exactly give me that peaceful, easy, feeling.

Mrs. Pelosi said after House Democrats last week rejected a Republican bid to eliminate the death tax. "Whatever we take up on our taxation [policy] will be about simplification. It will be about fairness. It will be about strengthening the middle class."

Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican. "We believe it is fundamentally un-American to tax our citizens upon their death, while Democrats appear to believe this form of double taxation is a fundamental right of the federal government."

Mrs. Pelosi wants to talk about fairness. Take a look at this graph showing the average income tax rates from 1990-2005. A few observations

• Tax rates on those with high incomes are far greater than for other Americans (that you already knew).. Folks at the top pay about 25% of their income in federal income taxes, which compares to less than 5% for half of the population at the bottom end.


• For the top two groups, the tax rate in 2005 was about the same as 1990. Essentially, the Bush tax cuts just reversed out the Clinton tax increases on these folks.


• The Bush tax cuts substantially reduced tax rates for people in every income group. Indeed, those at the bottom had the largest relative reductions in their tax rates.


• Let’s compare average tax rates in 2000 to 2005. For the top group, the rate fell from 27.45% to 23.13%, a reduction of 16%. Now consider the middle-income “top 26-50%” group, for example. Their tax rate fell from 9.28% to 6.93%, a reduction of 25%.


• Those at the bottom have paid little, and now they pay even less, due to legislation under both Clinton and Bush. Indeed, these data do not include the tens of billions of dollars sent to lower-income families as a result of the earned income tax credit, and thus it overstates taxes paid by the bottom group.

I’m for lower taxes for everyone, but I wish people would look at the actual data first before carping about the rich supposedly being specially favored by recent tax cuts.