Earl Pomeroy: “Mr. Speaker, this rule brings an important debate to the floor. Let me tell you what is not on the floor. What is not…”

“Mr. Speaker, this rule brings an important debate to the floor. Let me tell you what is not on the floor. What is not being debated is whether there should be additional estate tax relief. We agree there should be. Much has been accomplished over the last few years in that regard. The estate tax level attached at $600,000 per individual at the beginning of this decade. So that, as my colleague from West Virginia talks about the concern of estate tax on small businesses and farms, that may have been more the case at that time. Certainly it is less the case now. The estate tax level attaches at $1.5 million per individual, $3 million per couple, and obviously the number of estates that would have tax consequences has fallen significantly. Is it enough? No. Let us do something quite dramatic. The proposal that I am offering as a substitute would double from where we are today and in a very certain and immediate way bring to $6 million the estate tax exclusion for couples. Couples across this country possessing less than $6 million in assets, no estate tax. Nothing. Gone. Immediately and certainly. By the end of the decade, it moves to $7 million. By 2009, there could be $7 million in a couple's estate. Is this meaningful? You bet it is meaningful. You look at the numbers, and it will tell you that we all but make this problem go away.”