Earl Blumenauer: “I invited a number of tax professionals in my community, CPAs, tax attorneys, financial planners, to come down and talk…”

“I invited a number of tax professionals in my community, CPAs, tax attorneys, financial planners, to come down and talk to me about how the effect of this proposal actually works. They said, number one, under existing law anybody who could not shield at least $5 million of an estate was really guilty of malpractice. Number two, they said it was not the estate tax that broke up small business. It was idiot sons, and they said in their experience when they watch great inherited wealth after three generations, it looks like it becomes a genetic defect. They pointed out that huge wealth, which would be tax free under the Republican proposal today, huge wealth often was not even taxed once. One does not become a billionaire based on their W-2s.”