Political Quotes

“And let's say five kids. That is a good number. Five kids, and they are raised on this farm. Now, two sections of land, paid for, and the 90-year-old patriarch of this family has reached the end of his life and he is watching how his life's work that is the legacy of his predecessors, the life's work of almost a century of his memory adding all up to this point where, if he passes away in the first minute of next year, the taxman hovers over the death bed and reaches in and pulls out, aside from the $1 million exemption, 55 percent of the asset value. That means that half of the land that has been accumulated goes to pay the taxman. The other half of that land, the five children that would inherit the balance of what is left, would have a 20 percent equity share in the land that is left, 20 percent equity share in 45 percent, roughly, of what was left. None of those children then, on that basis, have enough equity to hold that system, that unit, in place. And so they look at this and they would think, do I want to be in debt the rest of my life trying to retire this debt, trying to borrow the money to buy the section of land that it takes to pay the taxman and buy the 80 percent that is left that they don't have equity in, that goes to their siblings, and to be able to turn the cash flow to retire it to serve the interest and principal on those two sections of land? And the answer that they will come away with, and a rational banker will tell them: You can't hold this land.…”