Estate Tax repealed for one year...so they can really jam it to you next year.

Effective midnight this morning, the much hated Estate Tax has been repealed for 2010. This is really great news. Families who have worked and slaved all their lives to accumulate assets they then wish to pass on to their spouses or children can do so this year without paying the ridiculously high "death tax".

Starting Jan. 1, estate taxes will be repealed for 2010 only. That means unless Congress acts otherwise, there is no limit to the wealth that can be passed on to heirs without incurring estate taxes through the end of that year.

As is the norm with our government though, this tax holiday may be short lived. Not only was it the Dems plan all along that surely someone would introduce legislation to get rid of this fair treatment of the American people...you know, where they get to keep money they have worked for and already paid taxes on several times over, but now that it hasn't been stopped, there are a few on Capitol Hill looking to repeal this tax break. The plan would be to put something in place next year that will repeal the tax break retroactive to this year.

"Ten years ago, there was a lot of gallows humor about repeal when everybody said it would never happen," said Rep. Richard Neal (D., Mass.), who chairs the House Select Revenue Subcommittee. "Now, one of those never-happen moments has happened, and nobody's laughing."

Mr. Neal said "there is no question" that Congress will reinstate the tax, retroactively to Jan. 1, early next year. That is also the intention of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.). But others aren't so sure.

Granted, this is not the first time Congress has made changes to tax laws and made those changes retroactive. None-the-less it doesn't make it fair or reasonable. The death tax has always been a ridiculous and unfair tax; repealing it permanently is the right thing to do.

I have no doubt no one is laughing. Why wouldn't our legislators feel it is OK to rape and pillage the dead? They do it to the rest of us all the time.