Political Quotes

“I rise to speak on the need for progrowth tax reform rather than a tax increase. President Obama has proposed raising taxes. He says that we should raise income taxes on individuals and small businesses, that we should raise capital gains taxes on investments, and that we should raise the estate tax, meaning raise the death tax on American families. For example, take the estate tax. You have a farmer. Right now, if he wants to pass his farm on to the next generation, for any value over $5 million, he has to pay the estate tax. Generally, families may be able to do that. They may be able to borrow the dollars required and pass the family farm on to the next generation. But under this proposal, that changes. Instead of paying the estate tax on anything over $5 million, now that farm family would have to pay the estate tax on anything over $1 million. So think about a farmer in my home State of North Dakota or maybe in Minnesota or anywhere else throughout the Midwest. How do they pass on that family farm when they are going to have to pay taxes on any value over $1 million? So now they are looking at a situation where they are going to have to sell that farm rather than have their children continue farming an operation that may have been in that family for generations. That is a real problem for our farmers, for small businesses, and for families across this great country, and it certainly is not going to help our economy. In fact, it will hurt our economy.…”