The Point of the Estate Tax

This should be obvious, but even people who are attacking, rightly, the estate-tax cuts don't seem to be saying it. An estate tax is not a death tax. It is an aristocracy tax. The point is, really, to work toward the Republican idea of "equality of opportunity" by not letting certain families just accumulate billions of dollars and hand them down through the ages, creating a de facto aristocratic class in this country even though our very Constitution prohibits a de jure aristocracy. That is the point of the estate tax. That is why we have it. Republicans, in arguing against it, are arguing in favor of letting this country turn into an aristocracy. And Democrats should call them out on it.