On the recordMarch 22, 2013
there are strong feelings of opinion in this body about the estate tax. I personally believe the current estate tax--with a very generous $5 million-per-person exemption, and $10 million per family; an estate tax that only applies to 3,800 families per year--is a fair part of our Tax Code. Others may disagree. But in our previous amendment, Warner amendment No. 693, we said if you are going to replace the estate tax, you have to pay for it. The unfortunate thing about the Senator's amendment is it says if you repeal the estate tax, you cannot use revenues to replace that. It will only have to be replaced with additional cuts. The problem we have at this point--$16.5 trillion in debt--is because we have not recognized to get a budget balanced you have to look at both sides of the balance sheet, revenue and spending. You cannot just keep taking revenue away on every item. So I would urge my colleagues to oppose the Thune amendment.
