The federal estate tax is 40%. NYC adds in another 16%.
It's misleading to cite that since it basically never happens.
The tax doesn't even come into the picture for fortunes below $30 million dollars (for two parents), and the rest of the time it averages ~14%.
https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-federal-estate...
I cannot understand what though-process led you to suggest repealing "it", whether that means the entire tax or whether it means reducing the number of brackets.
Why have a tax that never happens?
However it also true that 99% of the time the estate tax is $0, but that just tells you 99% of Americans die without being that rich. It doesn't mean that piece of the system is not effective or necessary at doing a job. If we had no estate tax, that would create a massive loophole people would abuse so that other taxes stop working as intended.
It's like how the vast majority of cars will not hit the railing that stands between them and a deadly plunge off the edge of the cliff... but we still need to keep it for when it matters.
So instead he'll just act like he didn't read that "basically" that you wrote, despite quoting it and then pretend like he doesn't really understand what you just wrote above.