Barbara Cubin: “I stand in very strong support of repealing permanently the death tax. I personally know ranchers and farmers in my…”

“I stand in very strong support of repealing permanently the death tax. I personally know ranchers and farmers in my great State of Wyoming who have had to liquidate, had to sell their property, in order to pay the death taxes on their property. These are sometimes fifth-generation families, where they have done nothing but ranch or farm for five generations, and that is all they ever wanted to do. Sometimes they will sell half of their ranch, but they still end up having to sell the whole thing, because they cannot make a living with only half of the property. We are not talking about wealthy people here. We are talking about small businessmen. We are talking about people who feed this country. We simply cannot afford to have our food supply controlled by big insurance companies who are able to afford to buy the ranches in the first place and then pay taxes on them, insurance companies, people like Ted Turner. We need to have middle class, hard-working farmers and ranchers that love the land, on the land, working the land. Unless we repeal the death tax, that concept will not survive in the United States of America. According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, one-third of small business owners will have to outright sell or liquidate their businesses to pay the death tax. Half of those will have to lay off 30 or more people.”