[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 17, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H5448-H5449]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           KILL THE DEATH TAX

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a cosponsor of H.R. 8, 
the permanent repeal of the estate tax, more honestly described as the 
death tax.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe as most Americans do that it is unacceptable 
for a grieving family who has recently lost a loved one to get a visit 
from the undertaker and the IRS agent on the same

[[Page H5449]]

day. It is simply unconscionable and it ought to be illegal.
  The death tax is really a tax on the American dream. Americans work 
hard their whole lives, they save, they invest. They build farms and 
shops and factories, hoping to pass along their dream to their families 
once they are gone, but after years of paying payroll taxes and income 
taxes and sales taxes and property taxes, many businesses do not make 
it, and those that do, the government can step in and take over half of 
what someone worked their whole life to build.
  Mr. Speaker, I grew up working on a farm. I represent a large portion 
of rural Texas, and rural Texas is a great place to live, but it can on 
occasion be a challenge to be a good place to earn a living. I know 
firsthand that farmers and ranchers and small business owners have to 
work extremely hard to provide for their families.
  A while back ago, I heard from a constituent, a rancher in Leon 
County. He told me how he had worked hard for over 30 years to build a 
cattle ranch. He almost lost it once or twice through draught and low 
beef prices, but he persevered, and with his family by his side, he 
made it into a great success. His greatest dream was to leave this 
ranch to his son and his daughter who had worked alongside of him, but 
with sadness in his voice, he told me by the time the government takes 
its share, there is just not enough to go around.
  Many of my colleagues like to talk about tax fairness, but Mr. 
Speaker, is it fair to take this man's ranch away from him? Is it fair 
that Americans are being taxed twice on the same income? Is it fair 
that after a family member is gone that his loved ones are presented 
with a tax bill? Is it fair that the Federal Government can 
automatically inherit 55 percent of the family farm, business or nest 
egg? Aside from the fact that the death tax is inherently unfair, what 
about its impact on our economy?
  Mr. Speaker, while small businesses create two out of every three new 
jobs in our Nation, death taxes can kill those small businesses and the 
jobs that they represent. In fact, death taxes are the leading cause of 
dissolution for small businesses in America.
  According to the Center for the Study of Taxation, 70 percent of 
businesses never make it past the first generation because of death 
taxes. Eighty-seven percent do not make it beyond the third generation.
  How do death taxes kill American jobs? With the death of a small 
business owner, many employees often lose their jobs when the relatives 
of the deceased are forced to liquidate the business just to pay the 
taxes.

                              {time}  1800

  One-third of small businesses are sold or liquidated to pay death 
taxes, and half of those businesses are forced to eliminate 30 or more 
jobs. Furthermore, small and mid-sized manufacturers spend $52,000, on 
average, just for death tax planning. Now, $52,000, that is a good 
paycheck that could be going home to somebody back in the fifth 
district of Texas.
  On the other hand, Mr. Speaker, repealing the death tax can create 
200,000 extra jobs a year helping more Americans get back to work, 
giving them a paycheck instead of an unemployments check, and giving 
yet another boost to our recovering economy. According to the National 
Federation of Independent Businesses, nearly 60 percent of business 
owners say they would add jobs in the near future if the death taxes 
were eliminated.
  And what does our society get for the death tax? Nothing. According 
to the Joint Economic Committee, the cost of compliance with the death 
tax to the economy is roughly equivalent to the tax shield. All of 
those family businesses liquidated, all of those jobs lost, all of 
those family farms sold and all of those nest eggs cut in half. For 
what?
  Mr. Speaker, I have heard those on the other side of the aisle use 
the same old tired class warfare rhetoric again and again in dealing 
with the death tax issue. The politics of envy. But when something is 
wrong, Mr. Speaker, it is simply wrong; and it does not matter if the 
death tax only affected one person in America. Taxing anyone twice for 
the same work, for the same income, for the same savings is 
unconscionable; and it ought to be illegal.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support the permanent repeal 
of the death tax. It is time to end the death tax so we can resurrect 
the American Dream.

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