The April 13 Business article on efforts to repeal the "death tax" ridiculed those who contend that the tax affects the little guy. While a graphic printed with the article might be accurate for the nation at large, a sampling of the estate tax's effect on residents of Fairfax, Montgomery or Arlington counties would tell a different story.
Soaring real estate values (and property taxes) are making million-dollar homes almost normal around here. It is not inconceivable that even government employees who habitually max out contributions to their thrift savings plans and make other wise financial choices could hit the trigger numbers by 2011, especially with the aid of inflation.
Those of us who have suffered through herky-jerky revisions of this tax understandably are not buying cynical offers to divide and conquer with a partial repeal. This would leave the tax alive to lunge back when we least expect it.
JONATHAN SMITH
Bethesda
