Pulling The Plug On Grandma

Perhaps you notice the uncomfortable incentive structure here.

The House of Representatives voted at the beginning of December to continue the current year policy into 2010; instead of an exclusion for all estates, only those greater than $3.5 million in value would be taxed. That would still leave some bad incentives in place, but it would be better than the current policy path. That left the Senate, graveyard of sensible policy ideas. And the Senate has now abandoned its effort to pass the House extension of the estate tax measure.