Maxwell Frost: “Mr. Speaker, I really wish that I had three little shells to put up here on my podium with a pea under one of the…”

“Mr. Speaker, I really wish that I had three little shells to put up here on my podium with a pea under one of the shells, because that is what you need to follow this tax bill. They have done something extraordinarily ridiculous just for starters, and I would like to kind of talk about that before I go into my full statement. Now, let us say you are a person that wants the estate tax repealed. I have gotten a lot of calls like that from people in my district. They repeal the estate tax for 1 year. 1 year. Let me say this again. You have to die in the year 2010 to be able to pay no estate tax. If you die in 2011, you have to pay the estate tax just the way it is today. They sunsetted their repeal of the estate tax in the year 2010. So you have got a 12-month window to die if you want to avoid the estate tax. Between now and then, of course, they gradually raise the exemption, so if you die between now and 2009 you do not have to pay quite as much in the estate tax and if you die in 2010 you do not have to pay any estate tax. But if you have the good fortune to live until 2011, you pay the full estate tax exactly as it is right now.”