Congress passed the federal budget resolution on April 29, keeping the federal estate tax threshold (exemption amount) at $3.5 million and the tax rate at 45% for the next five years. Senate Republicans, joined by some Democrats, had been pushing to raise the exempt amount to $5 million per person. The budget resolution isn't binding law, but the estate tax battle looks to be over for now.

This is good news for the average American. Federal estate tax affects only those who inherit from the wealthiest people in our society -- fewer than one percent of the U.S. population. Reducing that tax now, as a USA TODAY editorial put it, would be "a mind-boggling testament to some lawmakers' lack of seriousness about fiscal responsibility, not to mention their solicitude toward moneyed interests and donors...."