Norman D. Dicks: “the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee has made a diligent and sincere effort to seek a compromise position on the…”

“the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee has made a diligent and sincere effort to seek a compromise position on the estate tax issue, and he should be commended here in the House today. Many of the Members of the House have conceded that the threshold at which estates are subject to the tax is not realistic in today's economy, considering the assets many small businesses routinely accrue in this country. While I believe the full repeal of the tax is unjustifiable, because it would mean such a huge loss of revenue to benefit primarily the wealthiest portion of our population, I believe there is interest in making some adjustment, if the cost in terms of lost revenues is reasonable. So I applaud the effort that was made to seek this compromise, however I rise today Mr. Speaker to oppose the unfortunate result, H.R. 5638, because I believe it doesn't meet the test of being reasonable. At a time when the annual budget deficit is now approaching $400 billion and when there are so many urgent issues in our society that we simply cannot afford to address, I believe the compromise that has been reached raises that threshold far higher than it should be and thus it relinquishes far too much revenue in order to assist a very high-income sector of our population.…”