Thoughts for a Taxpayers' Day

Does your local chapter of Save Our Tax Cuts need a little inspiration? Try this from Good joke: Murphy's Lesser Known Laws:

A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

If any chapter members are tempted to perform criminal acts in order to achieve deeper cuts in their taxes, you might call their attention to this law:

When you go into court, you are putting yourself into the hands of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

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This month the Lame-Duck Congress goes on a Wild Goose Chase, as one pundit put it. Estate-tax reform is expected to be among the geese that get away. Meantime, here's a paradox to ponder:

If Congress, via the federal estate tax, insists on limiting the assets we can pass to our children and grandchildren, why doesn't Congress limit the liabilities we can pass to them, via federal deficits?

For the sake of our descendants, shouldn't we should replace the federal "death tax" with a federal debt tax?