Ms. Roth is absolutely correct, the death tax effectively exposes assets and capital to double or even triple taxation (or more) for no other reason than they're changing hands. (And, of course, if they don't change hands and an estate goes into probate, the state stands to get its sticky fingers on most or all of it.)

To label it a "loss" of revenue without the death tax assumes that the state gets first crack at every dollar in the economy, even before someone's heirs. The abject arrogance and lack of basic economic understanding in that view is staggering.

But, of course, benevolent and caring bureaucrats know better than you and me how our own stuff should be used and who should use it.