Vernon Ehlers: “when I was a young lad, I grew up successively in two different farming villages. One had 800 occupants. Another had…”

“when I was a young lad, I grew up successively in two different farming villages. One had 800 occupants. Another had 200. And I became acquainted with the work of the farmers. They work very, very hard. They struggle to build their farms. They reinvest in their farms. And when they die, they want to leave it to their children. But unfortunately, because of something called the death tax, established in order to finance World War I, they frequently are not able to leave that farm to their children. The death tax can be as high as 55 or 60 percent. They simply cannot afford to pay the tax in order to keep the farm. They do not have the cash. Their money is tied up in the land. We passed a bill in the House and the Senate to get rid of the death tax. The President vetoed that plan. He and the Democrats in this Chamber argue that this is a tax cut for the rich. They should go talk to some farmers. They will find out they are not rich. Their money is tied up in the land. It is not in their wallets. I urge that we override the President's veto and make things right for these people. The rich escape the estate tax. They have attorneys who show them all the ways to get rid of it. The farmers cannot afford to hire those attorneys. I urge an override of the veto.”