Jon Kyl: “today and tomorrow could be historic days in the Senate--indeed, in the history of our country--because we have an…”

“today and tomorrow could be historic days in the Senate--indeed, in the history of our country--because we have an opportunity to eliminate what some have called the most unfair tax of all. I speak of what has been called the estate tax, or the inheritance tax, or more recently has become known as the death tax. Just a word of the history of this tax would be interesting to my colleagues before I discuss the process by which this consideration will occur and some of the reasons why we need to proceed with it. It is very interesting that the history of the estate tax actually can be traced back to ancient times and the Roman Empire, but the more relevant history for purposes of the United States, because we borrowed this concept from England, came from the Middle Ages when the sovereign or the state, of course, owned all of the assets--the land and even the personal property--within the country. What would happen is, when the king owned all of the feudal property in England, he would grant the use of that property to the people within the kingdom. Certain individuals during their lifetimes--let's say a farmer--would have the land to till and the farm animals to take care of. When that farmer died, in effect, his family would have to buy back that property from the king in order to continue to farm that land, to raise those farm animals and so forth.…”