My Grandfather was the older child of Irish immigrants. The family was incredibly poor. My grandfather used to put a block of ice and his younger sister on his wagon and sell ice door to door for money for the family. He worked on Christmas Eve. My great-grandfather died and great aunt became a nun in her teens and moved away, leaving my grandfather to take care of his family. He worked his entire young life and discovered ways to not spend money so there would be more for his family. For lunch for many years, he ate tomato sandwiches and tomato juice. That is, he would sit in the restaurant and ask for a glass of water and two pieces of bread...that and the ketchup on the table would provide his lunch.
In his late 20's and early 30's he served as a medic in WWII. He was in Normandy on D-Day, fought in France, Italy, and was devestated to discover that the Hershey's chocolate bars many of the GI's were giving to the Holocaust survivors they liberated from a concentration camp actually made them sicker.
When he returned home he went to a restaurant and ordered nothing but a head of lettuce - it had been years since he had eaten fresh vegetables. He then started working as a mechanics assistant for a shipping company all of you have heard of...by the time I was born he was a VP of the company. He never went to college. He just worked hard, every day. At his funeral - the CEO of this company was in attendance, so was every mechanic and worker at his local office.
Before he died he put both of his daughters through college and started a small trust fund for them and his 4 grandchildren.
Due to a lot of hard work and smart investments on my parents part my mother's share of that trust fund wasn't needed to put me through college...my parents were able to do it on their own. So the trust fund grew a bit more. I hope to one day never have to touch that trust fund to send my children to school...I hope to do nothing but add to it for my children and grandchildren...like my grandfather did - and like my mother and father did.
It still is remarkabley small compared to Paris Hilton's...but it represents a hope. A hope that an Irish-American boy had for his family. That they would be safe and protected...and able to go to college and do all the things my grandfather wasn't able to do. It was the hope that maybe his grandchildren wouldn't have to work every single Christmas Eve. That they could go to whatever school they wanted to...study what they wanted and become good people. It was the hope that he could provide for his "girls" as he called his daughters, even after he was gone.
Estate taxes don't just take money from Paris Hilton and Ivanka Trump, Jillian. They steal money that was sweated and worked for by hard-working American citizens who busted their asses their entire lives to achieve the American dream of providing a better life for their kids than they had themselves.
Personally, I don't want to ever have to touch that money. I'm working my ass off everyday - and trust me, with my husband in lawschool full-time and me supporting us as a teacher and writer - we are NOT living the high life. If I plan well, and I'm trying, by the time I inherit my grandfather's and mothers gift to me I won't need it...I can save it for my children and their children.
But I'll tell you one thing, Jillian...that money has been taxed and taxed again, already and you and any other tax payer do not deserve one more dime of the money my family worked their asses off for.
Estate taxes are unconstitutional...in fact, they go against much of what America is supposed to be about. You can choose to close your mind and just few it as Paris Hilton-types losing money they won't even know is gone...but thats not who this hurts.
You can still support estate taxes if you want. But I wanted to share my story with you because I want you to see another angle of it. My grandfather was a great man who worked so hard every day of his life. He worked not so he could be rich, so that he could take lavish vacations...he didn't do this so his family would be rich...or that we could have seven houses (no one in my family owns more than one house)...he did it so that we would have opportunities to go to college, be able to take care of emergencies, to be safe. It is a quite different story than Paris Hilton...but I think it is far more valid when considering why the estate tax should be lowered and/or removed.
Like Gem, middle school, though looking for secondary position. 
to a documented case(s). Or are you just blowing smoke again? There's nothing "brilliant" about their strategy. It's just pure cussedness, mean-spiritedness and greed.
