Political Quotes

“I appreciate the opportunity to join a number of my colleagues representing farm States to sound the alarm to the millions of rural Americans who will be harmed by proposed tax changes outlined in the American Families Plan. Described as a plan to help American families, it would do the exact opposite for farm families across the United States. The most concerning changes to the Tax Code include decreasing the estate tax exemption, increasing capital gains tax rates on transfers of property to heirs, and increasing taxes on appreciated assets, such as farmland, which has increased in value very significantly in recent years. These misguided proposals fail to take into consideration the fact that farmers in general are highly vulnerable to these types of tax changes, as land and equipment comprise most of the farmer's net worth. If enacted, these tax provisions would strongly discourage and make it more difficult for our next generation to get into farming. The provisions would create significant hurdles from a financial perspective, to say the least. With the average age of U.S. farmers being nearly 60 years old, do we really want to force surviving spouses or heirs to sell half of the farm they inherited simply to continue farming the land that has been passed down for generations? Family farms are the backbone of American agriculture. Roughly 98 percent of all U.S. farms are family owned and operated.…”