William M. ``Mac'' Thornberry: “I appreciate the gentleman from Ohio yielding. I rise in support of the rule and the underlying legislation. Mr.…”

“I appreciate the gentleman from Ohio yielding. I rise in support of the rule and the underlying legislation. Mr. Speaker, I think the gentleman from Ohio makes a great point. It is not right to have some States given preference versus other States when their States have different methods of taxation. I want to focus my remarks primarily on the death tax. I want to first commend the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady), who is the sponsor of the underlying legislation. I have had a bill to deal with the death tax and supported doing away with it completely since I have been in Congress. I want to express appreciation for the 79 Members who have cosponsored my bill in this Congress, which is substantially similar to the bill we will vote on tomorrow. Mr. Speaker, the reason this issue is so important is because the death tax has a huge effect on farmers, ranchers, and small businesses of all kinds, including those in my district. It is one of the issues I have heard the most about. It hangs like a cloud over business growth and job creation. Now, what we often hear is: Well, the thresholds are so high that it really doesn't affect anybody but the very rich. I just want to make two points. Number one is we see continual efforts to increase taxes on estates. Even the President's budget request this year had a different method of increasing taxes.…”