Pete Domenici: “I think almost everyone has heard the name Dr. Milton Friedman. I would like to start my brief remarks by quoting this…”

“I think almost everyone has heard the name Dr. Milton Friedman. I would like to start my brief remarks by quoting this very distinguished Nobel prize winning economist, who notes: The estate tax sends a bad message to savers, to wit: that it is OK to spend your money on wine, women and song, but don't try to save it for your kids. The moral absurdity of the tax is surpassed only by its economic irrationality. You could stop there and say no more, and ask, do we really have a tax on the books of the United States that will lead Americans to waste their money rather than save it to leave to their children? And then to be add the economically irrational absurdity. One could just read that indictment and conclude that it is a good source of information, a Nobel winner in economics, a splendid proponent of entrepreneurial capitalism and what makes it work and what detracts from its working. Dr. Friedman's quote could be the sum and total of my speech. I could stop there. But let me proceed on with a couple of facts. These are real. It does not raise very much money. It is a big trap for the unwary. It is viewed as the most confiscatory tax, with its rates reaching 55 percent, and if coupled with the generation-skipping tax, the practical effect of the tax is that it can grab as much as 85 cents on the dollar. I do not believe we in America ought to have any tax on the books that can take as much as 85 percent of any dollar, earned or owned, by any American.”