Political Quotes

“During the course of a working person's lifetime, the person pays tax on their income. If there is a little money left over from that and you save it or invest it, you pay taxes on dividend or interest. If you have a capital gain because an asset appreciates in value, you pay a tax on that. If you still manage to have something left over after all those taxes are paid at the end of your life when you die, the government comes in and takes more than half of that. I think to most Americans that is absolutely unreasonable and unfair to have that many layers of tax on the same income, the same savings. But nevertheless that is what we do. What are the ramifications of that? They are extremely negative. One example that is all too common is that small businesses, farms, they might grow to the point where there are assets that are substantial, they may be several million dollars, but very frequently they are not cash, they are not in the form of securities. They are not liquid assets that are available to pay bills. They are investment in plants, in equipment, in factories, in land, in very tangible real property but property that is not liquid. When suddenly the government comes in and says we are going to assess the value of this entire operation, and we want more than half of it now, that forces the heirs to that person's family business or farm to make some very, very difficult and sometimes devastating decisions.”