[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 58 (Wednesday, May 7, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2336-H2337]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    DEATH TAX SHOULD BE PUT TO DEATH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Colorado [Mr. McInnis] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak this evening for a 
few moments about the death tax. That is a tax that the U.S. Government 
applies to many of us, will apply to many of us, the second your heart 
stops beating. It is a tax which will get to us quicker than the 
undertaker will get to us. It is a tax on success in our country. It is 
a tax against the average American family in our country. It is a tax 
that destroys families.
  In our country, 70 percent of small business will not survive a 
second generation. In our country, 87 percent of small business will 
not survive a third generation. What is a big component of this failure 
for small business or family farms, and homes, to go from one 
generation to the next generation? What is that awful, heat-seeking 
missile? It is the death tax administered upon average Americans in 
this country by the U.S. Government.
  Now let us take a look at the taxes that we have in this country. We 
have a Federal tax, we have a State tax, we have a local tax, we have a 
property tax, we have a sales tax, we have an airplane ticket tax, we 
have a heating fuel tax, we have tax after tax after tax. But that is 
not enough for a government that sometimes finds it too easy to become 
greedy to get money out of our wallets. They have to do one more strike 
at us, one more strike at our hard work, one more strike at our 
families' ability to try and pass something on to the next generation, 
and it is called the death tax.
  Think about it. If you have somebody that thinks that they can 
justify when the Government comes in and taxes you, and by the way, 
this is money that you have already been taxed on for the most part, a 
government that comes in and taxes you on your death, if you have a 
friend or family that thinks they can justify it, sit down and visit 
with them. The next time you have coffee in the morning, the next time 
you get together with some friends, say hey, can anybody in this group 
justify or figure out why the Government wants to tax you on your 
death, why the Government wants to take the money that you spent your 
entire life working for and give it to Uncle Sam instead of allowing 
you to pass it on to your family, and by the way, keep it in your local 
community? Now, do not kid yourself, this applies to the average 
American.
  For example, a person who began faithfully contributing 10 percent of

[[Page H2337]]

their salary to a 401(k) starting at age 25 and who earned $41,000 a 
year by age 50 can hardly be considered a Rockefeller. Nonetheless, if 
you do the math, this person could accumulate $900,000 in their pension 
fund by the age of 60, and by 63 they could have enough in their 401(k) 
to face a success tax, a death tax, on their distributions from that 
account. It is not fair. We in this country suffer not just from our 
family farms and our family ranches, but anybody who begins to 
accumulate any success at all as a result of their hard work in this 
country, will be taxed by this Government upon their death. It is not 
fair.
  I have a friend who built up a business, who sold his business last 
year. Unfortunately, he got hit with capital gains taxation, 29 
percent. Then, unfortunately, he found out he had terminal cancer. 
Three months later he died. The effective rate on his estate is 73 
percent, and this is income that was taxed before. What happens?
  This gentleman made a good living. He supported 75 percent of the 
operating costs of his local church. What happened this year to the 
local church? The family had to say, we have to send that money to the 
Capitol. That money goes to Uncle Sam under the death tax. We can no 
longer support the local church. We cannot pass our business, we have a 
fire sale of our business. We have to sell our father's home that we 
had hoped the other family, his sister in this case, could move into, 
because we cannot afford to pay this tax. We have to have cash for 
Uncle Sam, and that cash, that debt accumulates the second you die. It 
is patently unfair.
  In this country there is no other tax that I can think of that is 
more unjustified, more destructive of the American family than the 
death tax, and it is about time that Congress got together and stopped 
this unfair taxation. It is sucking the money out of the family, it is 
sucking the money out of the community, and it puts it into a 
bureaucracy that cannot spend it near as well.
  So I urge all of my colleagues to join myself and many others in 
signing on to the bill which will eliminate the death tax once and for 
all in this country and let one family pass their hard work on to the 
next generation and the next generation.
  Mr. Speaker, if we want to do something for our children, get rid of 
the death tax.

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