IRS Job Cuts

Michael, you left out the key grafs:

But six I.R.S. estate tax lawyers whose jobs are likely to be eliminated said in interviews that the cuts were just the latest moves behind the scenes at the I.R.S. to shield people with political connections and complex tax-avoidance devices from thorough audits.

Sharyn Phillips, a veteran I.R.S. estate tax lawyer in Manhattan, called the cuts a “back-door way for the Bush administration to achieve what it cannot get from Congress, which is repeal of the estate tax.”

Now, if you were a cynic, like me, your first thought would be that this is a transparent handout to the rich, undertaken with nary a thought for questions of distributive justice.  But on further reflection, you'd realize that it's really a very clever plot to help the weakest and most vulnerable among us.  After all, with all the money these folks save on estate taxes, their heirs are surely going to go hire a few more servants, thereby creating job growth that helps everyone.  And what would the feeble minded children of the rich, like Paris Hilton, do if they had to pay those awful estate taxes and possibly even fend for themselves against those vulgar middle class people in the rough and tumble job market?  So you see, this is a very charitable application of prudential judgment that is perfectly consistent with the economic tenets of Catholic Social Thought.