According to the news source Congress Daily, advocates of estate tax repeal have enlisted the help of Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), to provide support for their stance on this issue. Nelson will be the Democratic cosponser of a bill aimed at repeal, along with Senator Kyl (R-AZ), who has sponsored pro-repeal measures in the past. The estate tax is a progressive tax that affects the wealthiest 2 percent of the population in America. It is currently scheduled to phase out through 2009, not exist in 2010, and then return in 2011. The estate tax provides an important source of revenue; if repealed the government would lose almost a trillion dollars in revenue over the next twenty years. Bill Nelson is one of seven democratic Senators who has voted in favor of repeal in the past. The others are Baucus (MT), Bayh (IN), Landrieu (LA), Lincoln (AR), Ben Nelson (NE), and Wyden (OR). While these Senators did vote for repeal in 2001, the fiscal health of our country is different today than it was four years ago. The CBO recently projected the budget deficit in 2005 to be around $427 billion. Our economy is not conducive right now to policies that will gut revenue even more. The above-listed Senators who have voted for repeal in the past need to recognize that our economy cannot handle an even larger squeeze on the budget right now. Voting to cut that much federal revenue annually would be irresponsible in a time when we are already expecting to see very limited domestic discretionary spending, as well as the extension of Bush's first term tax cuts. Repealing the estate tax would further cut taxes for the wealthiest individuals in this country, and make it more difficult for the government to be able to fully fund social programs that a large percentage of the population rely on to get by.