Kent Conrad: “Why do they have an estate tax plan that gives the first relief to the very wealthiest among us? Why not provide the…”

“Why do they have an estate tax plan that gives the first relief to the very wealthiest among us? Why not provide the first help to those who really need it: small business owners, the farmers who we think ought to be exempted from the estate tax because the estate tax structure, as it is, is out of date. That is not what the Republican plan does. The blue line on this chart shows current law. The red line shows the GOP estate tax proposal. They reduce the rate starting at the top rate first. They reduce that and then create this incredible cliff effect when it goes into full effect supposedly 10 years from now. Frankly, because of the exploding cost, I doubt their plan would ever go into full effect. We would have the worst of all worlds. We would have the top rates reduced, nobody relieved from estate tax liability for the first 10 years, and then I believe because of the exploding costs, this cliff effect would never occur, and we would have the worst of all worlds. We would have lost the ability to plan, to manage estates; we would have lost the opportunity to take people off the rolls who really ought to be off the rolls, and we would have, as I say, the worst of all worlds.”