[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 11, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H3666-H3667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NO TAXATION WITHOUT RESPIRATION
(Mr. PARKER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. PARKER. Mr. Speaker, Washington is confiscating the American
dream. Family farmers and small business owners work their entire lives
to earn a living and build a farm or a business they and their children
can be proud of. Then, at the moment of greatest family grieving, when
the owner dies, the IRS steps in to take up to 55 percent of that farm
or that business. The IRS calls this the estate tax. This is a death
tax. It is a tax for dying.
The farmer and the businessperson have paid income taxes, self-
employment taxes, property taxes, and school taxes. After all that,
Washington wants
[[Page H3667]]
to take up to 55 percent more just because the owner died; no other
reason.
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Death and taxes may be inevitable, but they do not have to happen at
the same time. It is time for Members of this body to realize that we
should have no taxation without respiration.
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