Gilbert Gutknecht: “This debate certainly sounds like debates we have had around this House. Every year when the budget comes up, many of…”

“This debate certainly sounds like debates we have had around this House. Every year when the budget comes up, many of the same expressions, we are hearing terms like exploding tax cuts, risky tax cuts. Somehow I am not really certain what a risky tax cut is and especially when we look at what we are doing with this budget. All we are really doing is making room to eliminate the marriage penalty tax. Now, nobody wants to debate that because we all know that it is incredibly unfair to say to married couples that they have to pay extra taxes just because they are married. I do not think it is risky for us to say we are going to make room in our budget to eliminate that unfairness over the next 5 years. That is not risky. Then we hear always, and this is a common refrain, that this is a tax cut for the rich. Well, I think the only tax cut that they can be talking about, because certainly what is being said is not that married people, just because they are married they are rich. Perhaps what is being talked about is reducing or eliminating the estate tax. Now, currently, as we all know, it does not take very long for a small business person or a farmer to reach that threshold where their estate is going to pay 55 percent, 55 percent. That is confiscatory.”