Orrin Hatch: “we are in the midst of an intense debate about how to deal with the expiration of bipartisan tax relief at the end of…”

“we are in the midst of an intense debate about how to deal with the expiration of bipartisan tax relief at the end of this year. The President and the Democratic Party campaigned primarily on raising the top marginal rates. Yet income tax rates are not the only tax policy set to expire at the end of this month. If Congress does not act, the currently low death tax rates which have previously been supported on a bipartisan basis will skyrocket. They will go from an exemption amount of $5 million and a tax rate of 35 percent to an astonishingly low exemption amount of $1 million and a 55-percent tax rate. The question is clear: Where are the Senate Democrats on this issue? Again, a low death tax has previously been a rare point of bipartisan agreement. Yet this past July, my friends on the other side of the aisle proposed and passed a bill that included a tax cut extension for individuals making under $200,000 or families making under $250,000. Conversely, the bill would have designated the millions of families in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Virginia, and elsewhere who make in excess of $250,000 as rich and subject to higher taxes. Still, when it came to the death tax, this bill, which was supported by all but one Democrat in this Chamber, was silent. In other words, that bill assumed that current death tax rates would expire--a crushing blow to America's families and businesses and farms.…”