Some words should just stand alone — without modifiers. In fact, sometimes those modifiers completely gut the meaning of the word. Take the word “justice.” It’s a pretty good word all by itself. When it’s modified by others, however, its meaning changes beyond recognition. Think of “social justice,” and now “tax justice.”

A group called Citizens for Tax Justice is leading the charge to save the inheritance tax, also known as the “death tax.” Congressional Republicans are trying to kill the death tax. CTJ says higher inheritance taxes are just.

“At a time of growing wealth and income inequality, House Republicans seem to be on a warpath to use tax policy to accelerate this trend,” CTJ said on its website recently. “Given that the estate tax is a critical bulwark against wealth inequality, it’s absurd that Congress would even consider weakening the tax when they should be working to strengthen it.”

The group’s reasoning is simple, and simplistic. Children of the wealthy inherit more, and that’s unjust. So wealth inequality must be pursued by confiscating inheritance.

“Inherited wealth is one of the only forms of income that is entirely excluded from income taxation,” CTJ contends. “In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, law professor Ray Madoff noted this inequity by pointing out that a person earning $60,000 could owe $15,627 in income taxes, while someone inheriting $60,000, even from a distant relative, owes nothing in taxes on that income. The estate tax makes up for this inequity (for wealthy estates at least) by applying a tax to the estate as a whole before it is then distributed to its inheritors.”

That’s wrong — because using that example, inheritor’s “distant relative” already paid taxes on that $60,000. It’s double taxation. Inherited wealth hasn’t been “excluded from income taxation.”

There are more problems with the death tax than the basic unfairness. When it’s a family farm or a family business that’s being passed down, inheritance taxes can result in the destruction of a viable commercial venture. If the inheritor can’t pay the confiscatory taxes on that farm or business, he or she has to sell it off, often piecemeal.

Economist Dr. Art Laffer studied the inheritance tax in Tennessee and found it drives out wealth and capital.

“Economics is the study of incentives,” he said. “And, Tennessee’s gift and estate tax is a case study in bad economic incentives. … Tennessee’s gift and estate tax is an immoral tax that hits homeowners, small business owners and farmers disproportionately hard.”

The tax brings in too little to make a big fuss over — unless there’s an underlying agenda, he pointed out.

“It used to be that the sole purpose of the tax code was to raise the necessary funds to run government,” he said. “But in today’s world the tax mandate has many more facets including income redistribution, rewarding favored industries, and punishing unfavored behavior.”

And that’s what Citizens for Tax Justice is about — imposing its vision of tax justice.

But justice can stand alone. It doesn’t need modifiers.