The Paris Hilton Tax Exemption?

The so-called "death tax" has been neatly repackaged by the Republicans into something that threatens virtually all Americans, instead of the top 1%.

Here's what Theodore Roosevelt had to say about the "Paris Hilton tax exemption" (anachronism for the effect of it):

"No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar's worth of service rendered--not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective--a graduated income inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against invasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate."

For more on the debate - and the way it's been framed recently - head on over to Matthew Nisbet's Framing Science. You'll be glad you did. (Well, maybe you will. Depends on who you are, I guess.)