Political Quotes

“I thank the distinguished gentleman from Texas for bringing this bill to the floor and for his hard work on this bill. I appreciate the opportunity to speak today in support of this bill. I am proud to be a cosponsor. The story is the same across this country in all of our districts, whether you have heard that today from every Member or not. Businessowners and farmers work hard for their entire lives with the goal of passing on the first fruits of their labor but face the sometimes insurmountable hurdle of the death tax. And, in addition to the actual tax liability the death tax imposes, merely planning for it, regardless of whether these businesspeople and farmers end up owing it, it is yet another challenge. Last month, when I chaired the hearing in the Select Revenue Subcommittee on this bill, we heard from three witnesses: a rancher, a farmer, and a product distributor. Their stories were the same. This is an onerous tax, creating hours and hours and months of work by attorneys and by their own employees trying to figure out how they are going to keep their business in their family. One businessowner said, for the first 26 years working in his family business--26 years he spent trying to figure out how to meet the death tax. When one relative was about to pass away, they had another death tax issue they had to address. Another relative was about to pass away and did pass away, and again they had to address the death tax.…”