Pete Sessions: “this is a big deal in real life. We are talking about taking half of somebody's accumulated estate. That is a lot. It…”

“this is a big deal in real life. We are talking about taking half of somebody's accumulated estate. That is a lot. It does happen when people die, and there are professionals out there who do this business, and they try to manipulate and avoid and delay, and sometimes they are successful, sometimes they are not. I want to talk about it in a little bit different vein tonight. I want to talk about what I think is a major problem in America. I know Senator Conrad is concerned about it. It is a collapse of smaller businesses and a trend toward larger and larger consolidation of business. I know an individual in Alabama--I met him at a town hall meeting. He and his father spoke to me. They told me they are paying $5,000 a month for life insurance on their father's life. They own three motels. They would like to expand motels. That $5,000 a month would probably help them buy a fourth motel. But they have to pay it for no other reason than if something happens to their father, they would have to pay an estate tax, and it would come out of their small business and they would lose it. Remember, this little chain of three motels is competing against Ramada, Holiday Inn, Marriott, and they are getting savaged every generation by a 50-percent tax on what the value of that family's estate is. That tax is not paid by the broadly held corporations, the international corporations. They never pay this tax. Think about it.…”