As you could probably tell from our post on Tuesday, we think the recent compromise unnecessarily harms the estate tax, helping millionaires and making the tax code even more regressive.  But we need your help to convince Congress that gutting the estate tax is bad policy.  Below is a copy of an action alert we just sent out; if you didn't get it, please take a second to read through it and call your senators and representatives.  Tell them to fight for a strong estate tax!

On The Colbert Report yesterday, host Stephen Colbert mocked conservative pundits and politicians ginning up fear over the return of the estate tax in 2011. Recently, conservatives have been bemoaning the potential impacts of a returning estate tax on the decision-making processes of families with wealthy relatives near death. Colbert empathized with "all those innocent, God-fearing people who are willing to kill Nana for the extra cash."

At long last, after months of meetings and deliberation, the much-hyped National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (the Deficit Commission) released its final report earlier today. Tasked by the President to slash the budget deficit by 2015, the Commission had until today to release a plan. If fourteen of the eighteen members of the Commission vote to approve it, the then-leaders of the House and Senate (Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)) agreed to bring the plan up for a vote.

It seems the Federal Reserve's latest proposed move to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment isn't that popular with the GOP. On Wednesday, the party's leadership sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke expressing concern that the plan to purchase an additional $600 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds might produce “hard-to-control, long-term inflation.” Nothing in the available economic data, however, even hints at an uptick in inflation.