Small Businesses simply cannot thrive under these conditions.

Death should not be a taxable event. The notion that the federal government is owed anything upon the death of a family member is outrageous to me.

I support a full repeal of the estate tax, and I have introduced legislation, H.R. 664, to make the 2001 and 2003 tax relief, including the estate tax phase-out, permanent.

I don't think there is anything that could be said or any question that I could ask that would get me to be more against the estate tax.

I appreciate, very much appreciate, your leadership on this issue and commend you for working in a bipartisan manner on developing legislation that is going to provide changes to the Small Business Administration programs that are going to provide needed capital to small businesses.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for holding this important hearing to consider legislative changes to the SBA's capital access programs.

access to credit and capital is critical to small businesses and to our American economy.

Should we have a greater emphasis on expanding capital and credit to manufacturers and, for that matter, any business that is going to improve the trade deficit?

I look forward to working with the Chairman to see what we can do to draft some bills to get some capital flowing until the banks can get back on line.

With no capital available to these small businesses, we're going to have a record number of people that have either gone out, or are on the verge of going out.

Small businesses need common sense solutions, the kinds that are both environmentally sound and economically viable.