The reality of a $10 trillion national debt -- and the realization that a tax paid by the 30 thousand richest Americans (out of 300 million) helps contain it -- prevailed in yesterday's 212-196 House vote defeating a measure to repeal the estate tax. Not everyone sees it this way, of course. Among the unreconstructed fiscal ostriches is House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (MO), who commented after the vote that the estate tax is one of the least equitable, most economically harmful taxes ever dreamed up by the federal government... It's only a matter of time before every American taxpayer is directly, and dramatically, affected. It's a tax that penalizes the wrong people for doing the right things -- and it costs the American economy hundreds of thousands of jobs each year. Hundreds of thousands of jobs? Okaaay... Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, it's worth noting that prior to yesterday's vote, the House had voted for estate tax repeal five consecutive times since 2001. And who says the opposite of progress is... Congress?