On the recordSeptember 23, 2010
I want to go back and cap off the estate tax argument and one of the other ways it applies. You said land rich and cash poor, and that happens all across this country. And some of that land is poor. When people say they are land rich, they're land rich with poor land even, but that's the expression. And there is a tradition that goes out; there are roots that go into the land. Those of us that have lived on the land and made a living out of it and look around at our neighborhoods and know that the generations that grow off and on of that land are committed to making a living out of it and seeking to establish a way that they can pass that land along to the next generation. It's a matter of tradition. It's a matter of pride. It's family lore. It's a distinction of having that chance. People came out across the prairie in a covered wagon and walked behind the oxen to live free or die. They put their stakes out there in the four corners of their 160 quarter section and homesteaded it. We have a lot of family farms in Iowa that go back 100 years, even 150 years, and some of those are broken up by the estate tax that looms over the horizon.
