Political Quotes

“no bill is perfect; and we always have ways of trying to change legislation. I hate to be an ``aginner,'' and I do not mean to be a nitpicker, but every so often something just does not feel right, so I tend to vote not only against H.R. 8, but also against the Democratic substitute; and what I would like to do is explain why. I think the eradication of the estate tax is wrong. I am sort of the camp of mend it, do not end it. And by ending it, what we do is we bring down upon ourselves, I think, a lot of unseen conveniences. Let me give you an example. What are the incentives to giving to churches? What are the incentives of giving to educational institutions? What are the incentives of our total giving that is so intertwined with the concept of our taxation system the way we have it now? Also when you buy a life insurance policy, you are looking for certainty; you are looking for predictability. The changes in that could be really horrendous. Also, I really feel that it is not within the spirit of the Founding Fathers to develop sort of a leisure class, people with little incentive to work because you pass money down from one generation to the other to another, absolutely whole cloth. While H.R. 8 is overkill, I feel a Democratic substitute is not right because it does not take into account the reduction in rates. If we are really going to help the small farmers or the small businessmen or the people who are working, we have to reduce those rates.”