Steve Largent: “I want to say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they cannot come up to the podium and say that they think…”

“I want to say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they cannot come up to the podium and say that they think that the death tax is unfair, they think that the death tax is un-American, let us reform it. If it is un-American, let us get rid of it. Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what H.R. 8 does. Otherwise it is a disingenuous argument that my colleagues make. Mr. Speaker, it has been said there are two things that are certain in life: death and taxes. And with the estate tax, Washington has figured out a way to marry these two certainties. The government taxes Americans when they work, when they save, when they get married; and in case we miss something, we tax them when they die. There is no tax more offensive or immoral than that levied on the deceased and their families. Mr. Speaker, the estate tax does not need to be modified or tinkered with; it needs to be repealed. Dying should never be a taxable event. It is a horrible social policy, and even worse economic policy. The effects of the death tax results in nothing less than the killing of the American dream. So many people in America wake up every morning and work hard with the hope that one day their children will have a better quality of life than they did. These folks are not the Rockefellers or the Gates, they just want to pass something on to their children. Estate tax prevents grandparents and parents from passing on the family business or farms to their children.”