A recent Paul Krugman zinger laments how Democrats and Republicans inhabit parallel universes. He left no doubts which one he lives in. As a libertarian who finds it difficult to be consistently loyal to either party, let me say why in this instance the Republicans have not behaved as badly as Krugman's caustic rhetoric suggests on three issues: unemployment benefits, the estate tax and health care. In his view, only hard and insensitive elitists worry about the second. In hard times, all the action should go on the first and third items, where his impatient more-now-is-better mentality flourishes, almost without reason.

So let's start with the estate tax and ask whether a tax that exempts 99.75%, of all estates, as the Democrats propose, is better than one that just abolishes...