Sometimes Democrats and Republicans use different phrasing to describe the same concept. In 2005, Republicans tried to cut the federal inheritance tax. They tended to describe it as a “death tax” (which sounds like an imposition upon the newly deceased). Democrats described it as an “estate tax” (which sounds like a tax on the wealthy). Similarly, Republicans tried to move Social Security into individual retirement accounts. To Republicans, this was a “reform.” To Democrats, this was a more dangerous-sounding “privatization.”
