IT’S OFFICIAL….The House is down, just the Senate to go. House Republicans voted overwhelmingly to permanently repeal the estate tax–at a cost, let’s remember, of nearly $300 billion over the next decade.

So, to sum up: Actual prescription drug relief? There’s no money. Armor to protect our troops? There’s no money. The funds to back up the mandated reforms of No Child Left Behind? There’s no money. Doing away with a tax on super rich kids? Plenty o’ cash to spare.

But, silly me–I’m forgetting what’s at stake here. Remind us, Congressman Cox: “[Supporters of the estate tax] want to pry lots of cash out of the cold, dead fingers of America’s deceased entrepreneurs.” That’s your Congress. The demagoguery they just throw in for free.

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Amy Sullivan is a Chicago-based journalist who has written about religion, politics, and culture as a senior editor for Time, National Journal, and Yahoo. She was an editor at the Washington Monthly from 2004 to 2006.