The Bush budget proposal assumed the repeal of the estate tax. Sen. Bernie Sanders's office juxtaposed what certain families would get from a repealed estate tax with assorted proposed cuts to social programs. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone summed up the comparisons thusly: Sanders's office came up with some interesting numbers here. If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.

Former Clinton administration Secretary of Labor Robert Reich blogged last week about Why Balancing the Budget is a Stupid Idea. It's almost impossible to agree or disagree with his reasoning, because he doesn't provide any. Oh, well, perhaps this part supports his argument:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has spent this week on Capital Hill addressing various Congressional committees on the state of the U.S. economy (we're doing OK). The topic du jure (de la semaine?), however, has been wealth and income inequality. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs chairman Chris Dodd's (D-CT) first question to Bernanake was: Do you share Chairman Greenspan's concern, Mr. Chairman, that continued economic growth of inequality is a significant threat to our nation's fundamental promise of economic opportunity? Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) followed suit and opened his line of questing with this: My first question deals with the issues of income inequality and the speech you gave yesterday, where you pointed out that this is just in an ideas, almost instantaneous economy, wealth agglomerates to the top. Wealth and income inequality is a real and growing problem (despite the carping of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board). Policy makers are now in hot pursuit of the causes and possible remedies (if any). Bernanke believes "[t]he very important drivers of economic growth and prosperity in this country include free and open trade and technological progress," but that the gains from these changes will have deleterious effects on some workers while "those who are going to benefit the most from globalization and technology are those who have the skills." In other words, income inequality is the result of an unequal distribution of education and skills.

The behind-the-scenes struggle over the shape and size of the minimum wage tax package (covered here, here, with an outside critque here) is intensifying, with the White House weighing in heavily and a group of GOP senators raising new objections. The Admin's Feb. 13 Statement of Administration Policy on H.R. 976 endorses the $8.3 billion small business tax cut adopted by the Senate in S. 2. It is not surprising the president favors more tax cuts, but the timing of this release throws more fuel on the fire heading into a conference negotiation between the two chambers.