Blake Moore: “I rise in support of H.R. 8, legislation that would provide for the eventual repeal of the estate and gift tax. I have…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 8, legislation that would provide for the eventual repeal of the estate and gift tax. I have long been a supporter of providing estate tax relief to American families, small business owners, and farmers who have worked their entire lives to transfer a portion of their estates upon their death. While H.R. 8 is the vehicle that the House leadership wishes to pursue to achieve this goal, I believe there is a better way to provide relief and maintain our commitments to paying down the national debt, protecting Social Security and Medicare, and providing for our other priorities. This is why I will also be supporting the substitute to H.R. 8. The alternative will increase the estate tax exclusion for all estates to $4 million, exempting two-thirds of all estates that would have to pay tax under current law and 99.4 percent of all farms that would otherwise have to pay the estate tax. All of these changes will be made immediately, instead of delaying relief to the small businesses and family farmers who truly need relief for several years as H.R. 8 would do, giving more estate tax relief to estates of less than $10 million than H.R. 8 through 2008. H.R. 8 does not repeal the estate tax for 10 years; rather, it slowly phases-down the marginal tax rates and provides no increase in the exclusion. This will delay estate tax relief to the small businesses and farms that truly need it. H.R. 8 uses a phase-in period to hide its real effects.”