Jack Reed: “the proposal before us today to repeal the estate tax rests on profound misunderstandings of this tax, and particularly…”

“the proposal before us today to repeal the estate tax rests on profound misunderstandings of this tax, and particularly on who pays this tax. We have been hearing our colleagues talk about the death tax and that it is stalking every American. It turns out that in 1999, 2.5 million adults died; 49,870 estates incurred a tax liability. A very small fraction of Americans face the estate tax, but I point out, they are the wealthiest Americans. They are not the Social Security recipients. They are not individuals who have worked all their lives and are now with a small pension facing their last days. These are the wealthiest Americans. It turns out that with the unified credits, with the ability to gift funds to individuals, there is an opportunity--in fact, one that is taken by most Americans--to avoid the estate tax. So this is not a death tax; this is a tax on the very wealthiest Americans. And this is a tax that was really, in many respects, copied from the example of our British brethren across the sea, who saw the corrosive power of wealth that is passed on from generation to generation to generation. I have heard some of my colleagues on the Republican side talk about how the death tax is an insidious weapon of large corporations to beat down the small workers and farmers in this country. Nothing is further from the truth.”