Pete Stark: “I have a rather personal interest in this legislation, and I have heard a lot from the chairman of the Committee on Ways…”

“I have a rather personal interest in this legislation, and I have heard a lot from the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means about what we owe our children, so I have come to the well this morning and apologize to my children, I have 5, and 10 grandchildren. I am probably one of the few Members of the House who started out poor. I used to say I was so poor as a kid I never slept alone until I was married. But through good luck and the action of commerce, I was able to amass what most of the people in my district would call a fortune. And I have not paid much tax on that. I pay income tax each year. I pay more income tax than you pay me salary, but most of what I have was accumulated through capital gains, and I have not sold it. I do not intend to. My kids will get it pretty much free. So I apologize because I am going to vote against this. Kids, to Jeff and Bea and Thekla and Sarah, Fortney and the 10 grandkids, you are going to have to pay some tax. This is a little family business, it might be 7 figures, but you are going to get a down payment on that from your mother and me of $1,350,000 free. You have not worked a day in your life for that. You have a college education, down payment on your homes, cars, but you have not worked worth squat. But you are going to get a million, a million and a half bucks.…”