Lee Metcalf: “a lot of controversy was generated recently when Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers stated that anyone who wants…”

“a lot of controversy was generated recently when Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers stated that anyone who wants relief from the inheritance tax, the death tax, is selfish. He later retracted that remark, but revealed a basic philosophy shared by many high officials in our Government. I am an original cosponsor of two bills dealing with the death tax. The first introduced by my good friend, the gentleman from California, Mr. Chris Cox, would totally repeal the death tax. The other sponsored by appropriations chairman, the gentleman from Louisiana Mr. Bob Livingston, would increase the inheritance tax, the death tax, exemption from $600,000 to $1.2 billion. By the way, the budget agreement between congressional leaders and the President lifts the exemption to that level, but over a period of years. We should do it immediately. At least this is a step in the right direction. I want to emphasize again that I am a deficit hawk. I have opposed some tax cut proposals because they were not accompanied by corresponding spending cuts. It would have made it much harder, if not impossible, to balance the budget in the near future. However, I would point out that the Federal Government receives virtually no benefit from the death tax. In fact, it probably loses money. It sounds incredible, but it is true. According to Investors Business Daily, the death tax accounts for only about 1 percent of all Federal taxes collected.…”