In a study we recently conducted for the American Family Business Foundation, in which we analyzed the reactions of small businesses to past tax changes, we found that eliminating the estate tax would increase the climate for wealth accumulation, ultimately increasing wealth in the United States by $1.6 trillion. Small-business investment would rise by more than 3% annually. That in turn would increase small-business payrolls by as much as 2.6%, adding roughly 1.5 million jobs to the economy, or nearly half the number President Obama hopes to save or “create.”

Conversely, if the estate tax is permitted to revert in 2011 to its 2001 level, investment will decline and payrolls will likely fall by nearly 1%, which means about 500,000 jobs will be sent to the chopping block.