It's the American Dream.

You start your own business. For the first few years, things are pretty lean. Then it starts to catch on. You make a little money. You hire a few more people. You make a little more money. The business blossoms and becomes successful.

A couple of your kids join you in the family business. They continue its tradition of success. You enjoy a fruitful retirement, secure in the knowledge that the business will be carried on successfully.

Throughout your entire life you have honestly and faithfully paid your taxes.

Finally, you die. Then your spouse dies.

What next?

The government takes up to 60 percent of the nest egg you have amassed for your heirs.

Doesn't seem right, does it?

Some members of Congress don't think it's right, either. Both of Indiana's senators - Richard Lugar and Dan Coats - think the estate tax needs work.

Lugar has introduced an economic growth package - co-sponsored by Coats - that includes three bills targeting the estate tax. The first completely eliminates the estate tax. The second phases out the estate tax over five years. The third raises the portion of your estate that is exempt from $600,000 to $5 million.

Right now, every dollar over $600,000 that you want to leave for your heirs is taxed at a rate of at least 37 percent to a maximum of 60 percent.

Proponents of reform note that changing times have made that $600,000 figure too low.

Once, people who had amassed a $600,000 estate were very wealthy. Things have changed. These days that $600,000 figure lands squarely in the laps of many small business owners and farmers.

Enter Lawrence Summers, deputy treasury secretary for the Clinton administration. On Monday, Summers said the Clinton administration opposes reforming the estate tax because it is paid mostly by a small percentage of wealthy Americans.

Now where have we heard that before? Why is it that every attempt to allow Americans to keep a little more of their hard-earned money is characterized as a sop to the rich?

The attempt at reforming the estate tax, Summers said, was "motivated by selfishness." Summers called the evidence to support estate tax reform "as bad as it gets."

This, of course, incensed Lugar and Coats, who have been working toward estate tax reform.

Lugar notes that the estate tax hits farmers and small businesses especially hard.

If you think about it for a moment, it becomes clear.

Most farms and small businesses are sole proprietorships or family partnerships. That fact alone subjects the vast majority of these businesses to estate taxes.

On top of that, according to estimates from the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, the estate tax burden will double by 2007. That's because neither the amount of the exemption nor the tax rate is adjusted for inflation. So as inflation whittles away at your dollars, the estate tax rolls merrily along.

"It is unfortunate that the Clinton adminstration is reluctant to help America's farmers and entrepreneurs who contribute substantially to the economy and are inflicted disproportionately by estate and gift taxes," Lugar said.

Coats, on the Senate floor, gave a speech regarding Summers' comments and provided evidence in support of rolling back the estate tax.

Coats noted:

• The estate tax can take more than half of a small-business owner's assets at death.

• The primary cause of the demise of family farms and businesses after the death of a founder and the founder's spouse is the estate tax.

• On average, 75 percent of farms consist of non-liquid assets, such as real estate and farm equipment, making payment of the estate tax very difficult without selling integral farm capital.

• Among a survey of black-owned enterprises, nearly one-third say their heirs will have to sell the business to pay the estate tax. More than 80 percent report they do not have sufficient assets to pay the estate tax.

• For all small-business owners, 33 percent report that they expect all or part of their businesses will be liquidated when the estate tax comes due.

• Nearly 60 percent of business owners report they would add more jobs over the coming year if estate taxes were eliminated.

• When preparing for estate taxes, the average family business spends nearly $20,000 in legal fees, $11,900 for accounting fees and $11,200 for other advisers.

To end his speech, Coats said:

"I would like to invite Mr. Summers to visit some of the 'mom and pop' businesses that are hit hardest by this devastating tax. Tell them that their pursuit of the American Dream has been for nothing. Further, I invite Mr. Summers to come to Indiana and tell the family that is forced to sell the farm that has been in the family over 100 years that they are being selfish. The federal tax code is the only part of this debate that can truly be labeled selfish. The government has no right to take unjustly the fruits of its citizens' labors."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Add to this the fact that the estate tax generates less than 1 percent of federal tax revenue and you have the definition of a bad tax.

The likelihood of Congress eliminating the estate tax is nil. But even the incremental steps in Lugar's other bills are steps in the right direction. [[In-content Ad]]