On the recordJuly 25, 2012
If I might say to my colleague from Mississippi and to the Senator from Indiana, to put this into perspective, the proposal in the Democratic bill, which would take the exemption back down to $1 million and raise the top rate to 55 percent, would apply to 24 times the numbers of farms and ranches as does current law. In other words, it increases by 24 times the number of family farms and ranches that would be impacted by the estate tax relative to where we are under current law. As the Senator from Mississippi pointed out, lots of mom-and-pop businesses--13 times the number of small businesses--would now be subject to the death tax as is the case with current law. So if we look at the impact of this, certainly on farm and ranch country--and I see that Senator Moran is here, who represents a lot of farmers and ranchers very much like those in my State of South Dakota--this is profoundly impactful. It would have a very negative impact on farm and ranch country--and I also argue, as the Senator from Mississippi pointed out--and on a lot of mom-and-pop small businesses.
