Bill Archer: “Mr. Speaker, today we continue our commitment to end the death tax that haunts American families, farms and businesses.…”

“Mr. Speaker, today we continue our commitment to end the death tax that haunts American families, farms and businesses. Today, we try to break the logjam created by yet another veto by a President who is determined to stonewall bipartisan actions by the Congress of the United States. I listened with fascination to the minority leader who just spoke. Yes, there are differences that divide us. Major differences. Six years ago he proposed to reduce the exclusion in the death tax to $200,000. Where is this newfound change in his position? The change came because the Republicans got a majority in the Congress that year. So today the Democrats say, oh, but we have a better alternative. The gentleman even referred to what revenue losses will occur in the second 10 years. Who knows? No revenue estimator, public or private, can give us that number. The longest estimate that is out there is 10 years. But what we do know is that in our bill, that the President has just vetoed, the capital gains tax occurs on every sale of an asset from the wealthy estates left by the Bill Gateses of this world. Now, the Democrats do not tell us that. That is fairness. We say death as an event should not trigger a tax. But when those assets are sold, handed down by the very wealthy, the tax is paid.”