Let's remove the labels for a moment and consider the following idea ...
In deciding where to look for additional tax revenue, one idea is to go after some of the largest inheritances - only the largest, $5 million and up, and farms explicitly excluded so as to protect family farms. (Presumably, in the interest of protecting some other kinds of family businesses, that sort of exclusion could be extended.) We are not talking about taxing many people - in the state of Washington, with about six million inhabitants, this tax would hit only about 250 people. It would not wipe out these inheritances, only take a sliver of it; but so great has the wealth disparity in our society grown that even though only 250 people would pay, and even then feel no more than a modest pinch, it would raise about $139 million, enough to contribute in a serious way to public education or safety. And bear in mind that this tax would reach people who have benefitted especially strongly from the advantage of living in the United States and, in many cases, specifically from living in their state - Washington, this case.
Put that way, you'd probably get four out of five, at a minimum, of Americans supporting this tax as one piece of the tax mix. If the issue were clearly understood by the general public, few legislators would dare vote against the tax.
That so many have is a marker of one of the more astouding pieces of political misinformation of recent years. The tax in question is properly called the "estate tax," and hits only the very wealthiest people in our society, and then not in a way that seriously affects them. The only argument for eliminating it amounts to sheer greed on their part. But because it is has been (brilliantly and dishonestly) renamed the "death tax" by so many political figures (notably members of Congress, and usually Republicans, all of whom should and most of whom probably do know better), it has been sold to a public which probably has been convinced in large part that this is a tax which we all pay. Pay when we die, presumably, or when our parents die. It is a stunning case of misdirection.
The Washington Legislature is on the verge of renewing the state's estate tax. And there seems to be little controversy about it: In this case, media and other reports have mostly been referring to the tax by its proper names.
A useful subject for polling: How many Americans have any idea how carefully limited the estate tax is? How many would support an "estate tax" but oppose a "death tax"?
