Quoted: Much as I object to many of the arguments posed in favor of it, the estate tax is one of the least bad taxes I can think of. Taxes that discourage pollution and other social bads are best of all, of course. If we repealed the estate tax and replaced it with a higher gas tax, that would be a good thing. But the Republican leadership proposes to replace the estate tax with even higher borrowing—meaning, most likely, higher income taxes at some future date—and that makes no sense at all. Higher income taxes do far more harm to incentives than the estate tax. The claim you sometimes hear that estate-tax cuts will be wholly self-financing (because they will spur investment, and hence incomes) has no evidence to support it, and does not deserve to be taken seriously.