Max Baucus: “I will sum up because these are the facts. We have a choice: It is the House-passed bill or the Democratic alternative.…”

“I will sum up because these are the facts. We have a choice: It is the House-passed bill or the Democratic alternative. The House-passed bill gives no relief, no estate is exempted under the House-passed bill, none, for 10 years--none. On the Democratic alternative, the vast majority of farmers and ranchers and small business people--family held--are exempt from paying estate taxes. That is a fact. Fact No. 2: The Democratic alternative is less expensive. Why? Because it does not totally repeal the estate tax, the effect being for the very wealthy taxpayers. That is a fact. Do we want to repeal the estate tax for the most wealthy taxpayers? I submit, because we are dealing with budget estimates, we do not know what the outyears are going to be. Because the House bill does not take effect for 10 years anyway, it makes sense to pass measures which do not repeal for the most wealthy, but, rather, save some of that for debt reduction, for education tax credits, or for other matters that, really, more American people really care more about than total tax relief for the most wealthy. That is really the question here.”