Oh yeah, that's a great idea. There are a significant number of people who get hit by this tax who are "one-time-rich" -- they sell their house after 40 years, or they die with no estate planning. The 'normal' rich aren't subject to this kind of thing, because if you're rich for a long time, you figure out (and hire professionals to help you) how not to just be a tax victim.
I've wondered why they push so hard to get rid of the tax, given that it's such a small amount of revenue. But maybe that's the best reason of all.
> Let's have a public debate about whether the children of the rich
> should be automatically rich or whether they should have to get a
> job.
That's an interesting debate topic, but unfortunately it has very little to do with the issues surrounding the inheritance tax.
> But that's against most politicians' personal interests, so we'll
> never find out if it's against their political interests.
I think a lot of political work was done on this; here's a useful summary:
http://www.house.gov/jec/fiscal/tx-grwth/estattax/estattax.htm
/jordan