David Thomas: “I take the floor as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means because the Joint Committee on Taxation is a bipartisan…”

“I take the floor as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means because the Joint Committee on Taxation is a bipartisan, nonpartisan research structure that is shared by both the House and the Senate. Some misstatements of fact have been made and I want to put it in its proper context. If anyone does not think this is not a pure partisan political contest, they did not hear the gentleman from Virginia. They have decided this now is an issue that they can ride, and of all the people to make the statement is the gentleman from Virginia. The chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation is the United States Senator from Montana, the Democrat, Senator Baucus. The request that was made to release this statement cannot be a former Member of Congress; it has to be a current Member of Congress. That request was made by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel). It has been said that the report has been completed. That simply is not true. How in the world could a report about ex-patriots started several years ago not be completed? The answer, very simple. The primary reason people give up their citizenship is not to pay taxes, but, more importantly, not to pay estate or death taxes. Somebody may have noticed last year, the United States House of Representatives, the United States Senate changed the estate or death taxes. That is now the law of the land, a fundamentally different way that we are taxing death or estates.”