Real News': Estate Tax and Defining 'Rich' in Fiscal Cliff Plans

With two weeks before the fiscal cliff, negotiations continue as the president has presented a plan that raises taxes on the “rich,” equated at around $400K, while calling for $1.3 trillion in revenue for only $850 billion in spending cuts; while Republicans led by House Speaker John Boehner say they'll raise taxes on those earning over $1million in exchange for $1 trillion in revenue increases and $1 trillion in spending cuts.

In a column for Bloomberg View, Veronique De Rugy and Nick Gillespie say neither side is doing enough in regards to addressing the spending side of the cliff in order for it to have a legitimate impact on the deficit.

There is also a debate among Democrats to reinstate before the Fiscal Cliff the pre-2001 estate tax, "death tax" as Republicans refer to it, a cause President Obama is supporting. The federal tax of 55 percent would be on accumulated wealth of $1 million or more when an individual dies. Democrats in more rural states have stood against their more progressive colleagues on the issue as the tax is expected to decimate the wealth of family farms. On 'Real News' Monday the panel discussed this tax and other harebrained ideas going around the beltway right now: