Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist took yet another step yesterday in the conservative misinformation campaign against the estate tax in a Wall Street Journal op-ed (subscription required). Frist writes the estate tax "is the cruelest, most unfair tax our government imposes," and that it is "an immoral tax." Neither of these claims could be further from the truth. Contrary to Frist's claim, a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office found that almost no farms and small businesses are unreasonably burdened. According to the study, of all the farms in all the states all across the country, only 27 out of 300 who had to pay estate taxes would have been taxed in excess of their ability to pay with liquid assets. This was when the exemption was $1.5 million. With exemptions already set to rise to $3.5 million by 2009, those remaining farms and businesses will be exempted completely. But if the estate tax battle is not about family farmers and small businesses, who is it about? As the Washington Post reports today - the true battle for repeal is between the few very rich and the even fewer super-rich. Senator Frist's incredulity notwithstanding, what is truly immoral is for conservatives and the Republican Party to continue to push estate tax repeal through a misinformation campaign when there are real problems to address that will require government revenues they are giving away to a very few super-wealthy families. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid all face fiscal problems in the long-run - and these are problems that will impact millions upon millions of Americans. Therefore, how can Senator Frist (and President Bush) justify spending so much time and effort to repeal a tax benefiting so few Americans while at the same time throwing up their hands and claiming the only solution to the fiscal challenges of the future is to cut supports and benefits for regular Americans? If you don't know the answer to that question, ask your Senators if they do. Send a letter to your Senators expressing your concerns about the current fixation with repealing the estate tax.