[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17136]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           DEATH TAX OVERRIDE

  (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BALLENGER. Madam Speaker, author Pearl S. Buck once wrote, ``Our 
society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the 
young or to be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the 
way that it cares for its helpless members.'' Yet our Nation's tax 
policies do desert the elderly.
  The IRS bureaucrats tax seniors who work, scrimp, and save all their 
lives to build a business or a family farm. Their property and profits 
are taxed yearly. They even pay taxes on their employees. And what is 
the result? Upon the death of the owner, a successful business is hit 
with a death tax of up to 55 percent of the business' worth. Most 
family businesses cannot survive such crippling taxes, and families are 
forced to sell.
  The death tax is uncivilized. Let us override the Clinton veto of the 
death tax.

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