Kent Conrad: “if I might, just on the underlying amendment offered by the Senator, this amendment as we understand it-- we have just…”

“if I might, just on the underlying amendment offered by the Senator, this amendment as we understand it-- we have just seen it--would virtually eliminate the estate tax. Let me say why. Let me first say there is no death tax in the country. Of course, if you poll people and you ask them: Do you want to eliminate the death tax? they will say sure. I had a baggage handler stop a colleague of mine, and he said: My No. 1 priority is to eliminate that death tax. My colleague, who is the current occupant of the chair, told him there is no death tax here. You are not going to pay any tax when you die unless you have $2 million. The guy was very surprised about that because he heard all this talk about a death tax. There is no death tax in America. There is a tax on estates. At today's level you would have to have $2 million to be taxed. That affects only one-half of 1 percent of estates. When the exemption increases, as it does under current law, and reaches $3.5 million per individual, $7 million a couple in 2009, which is next year, only two-tenths of estates will be taxed. If you are out there and you are hearing about this death tax, don't worry. It does not apply, next year, to 99.8 percent of people who pass away. It only applies to two-tenths of 1 percent of estates. We already have a tax structure that has overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest among us.…”