Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it is probably not surprising but, unfortunately, so far Democrats have shown little disposition to work with Republicans on tax reform legislation, despite the fact that parts of our plan, like lowering corporate tax rates and switching to a territorial tax system, have been supported by Democrats as well as Republicans. One particular aspect of the Republican plan that Democrats have been taking aim at lately is our plan to repeal the death tax. They complain that it is not something to really worry about, since, they claim, relatively few estates actually have to pay the tax. One of my Democratic colleagues released a report detailing some of the ways people try to avoid the death tax. From the tone of the press release and report, one would think that anyone trying to avoid the estate tax was a multibillionaire and a tax cheat--and greedy, to boot. But I can tell you, the actual situation is very different. Of course there are wealthy individuals who try to reduce or eliminate their death tax liability. After all, who wants to be taxed a second or third time on money they have earned during their lifetime that they could be passing down to their children or grandchildren? There are also a lot of small business owners and owners of family farms and ranches who have to spend tens of thousands of dollars a year trying to avoid the death tax in order to preserve their family business for another generation.…”