http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=378&item=4558951894&rd=1 Most people got their wealth by working for it. If they want to give it to their children as opposed to charity or the government, why stop them? Leave the estate tax & income taxes in place, just tweak them. Have a $1 million exemption on estate & exclude family farms. Go flat tax with fewer deductions, 0% below the social security cut-off, 20% above it.
"Over all, the top 2 percent of earners, the 2.5 million filers with income of $200,000 or more, paid almost 27 cents in taxes for each dollar of income they reported in 2002, other I.R.S. data showed. This group accounted for 53.5 percent of the income tax paid by all Americans." I guess the remaining 42.5% comes from the in-between 48% (middle class). If we can increase tax collections from corporations or wealthy tax cheats to cover the 4% currently paid by the bottom half of households, their share of federal taxes could be cut entirely. At the same time, if we could cut into "entitlements" such as welfare, unemployment, social security disability & the earned income credit, mandate a national minimum wage of $10 & reduce tax evasion, the federal budget (money needed) would be a lot smaller, too.