Mike Levin: “Well, so let us look at the facts, Mr. Speaker. The latest year for which we have exact data shows this: Of all of the…”

“Well, so let us look at the facts, Mr. Speaker. The latest year for which we have exact data shows this: Of all of the taxable estates, only 1 percent would be considered family farms, not the millions that the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Dunn) mentioned, but hundreds. That amounts to about 400 people in the entire United States. As to family-owned businesses in that year for which we have exact data, of the 2.3 million deaths, only 776 decedents had taxable estates. So when you add up the small businesses and family farms, 1.6 of all the estates paid the estate tax. So what is going on here? We are talking about, at the most, thousands. A few thousand. The Pomeroy substitute would increase the exclusion and, as a result, 99.65 percent of all estates would not be subject to an estate tax. So that means two-fifths of 1 percent would be subject to the estate tax. So why, in view of that, take away $162 billion the last 3 years of this 10-year cycle and $800 billion out of Federal revenues the next 10 years? Eight hundred billion dollars. Well, the main reason is cited today in an article by David Broder based on an article, an op-ed, a week before by Grover Norquist, where he said the Republicans can't do this all at once. They are now doing it step by step.”