"What do Disney heir Abigail Disney, hedge-fund billionaire Julian Robertson and former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin have in common? They want rich people to pay estate taxes and they say they're willing to pay those taxes themselves.

On Wednesday, Disney, Robertson, Rubin and Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, joined with the advocacy group United for a Fair Economy to call on Congress to reinstate the estate tax before lawmakers' August recess.

"My life of great comfort was made possible in spite of the estate tax, and my grandfather would be the first person to tell you he was able to amass his fortune not in spite of but because of the American system," including that tax, Abigail Disney, grandniece of Walt Disney and granddaughter of Roy Disney, said in a conference call with reporters.

For his part, Julian Robertson, on Forbes' list of the 400 richest Americans in 2009, whose firm Tiger Management was one of the first hedge funds in the 1980s, said the estate tax is a key tool for lowering the government deficit.

"You don't get out of a credit crisis by borrowing more money. You get out of a credit crisis by putting your house in order, and in America's case by bringing its budget deficit down," Robertson said on the call. [...]"

Read the full article by Andrea Coombes on MarketWatch.com