Byron Dorgan: “The largest 374 estates would get an average tax cut of $12.8 million. The largest 1,062 of the estates in this…”

“The largest 374 estates would get an average tax cut of $12.8 million. The largest 1,062 of the estates in this country--about five-hundredths of 1 percent of the estates--would get an estimated average tax cut of $7 million each. The point isn't to say that having made money in this country is wrong or you should be penalized for it. That is not my point. My point is not that. This is a wonderful place in which some people do very well. Many of them who do very well do so because they work day and night. They have a certain genius --and good for them. There are others, however, as all of us know, who are fortunate to inherit a substantial amount of money --and good for them as well. But our proposition is simple enough; that on those largest estates in this country--I am talking about the very largest estates--should there not be the retention of some basic estate tax to create some revenue that can be used then to invest in the future of this country, invest in its children, invest in its family farmers, invest in our senior citizens? Because we now receive that revenue. If we decide to repeal that revenue, the question is, measured against what? Is this the most important, or are there other areas that are more important? That is what we ought to be discussing.”