Political Quotes

“The Democratic alternative to change the estate tax would increase the exemption from $1.3 million per couple to $2 million per couple by 2002, and to $4 million per couple by 2010; meaning, if your estate is at $4 million, in the year 2010 you would not pay a single penny in estate taxes. This would eliminate the tax on two-thirds of the estates currently subject to tax every year. The Democratic alternative would also increase the family-owned business exemption from $2.6 million per couple to twice that, of a general exemption, to $4 million per couple by 2002 and $8 million per couple by 2010. This would remove almost all family-owned farms and 75 percent of family-owned businesses from the estate tax rolls. So the Democratic alternative eliminates two-thirds of the families paying estate taxes in America, 75 percent of the family-owned businesses, and virtually all of the family farms under the Democratic alternative, for a fraction of the cost of the Republican approach. I think the Senator from North Dakota has made it clear that the people who are left at that point paying the estate tax, under the Democratic approach, would include, if I have not mistaken his comment, the Forbes top 400 wealthiest people in America.”