[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5466]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           ESTATE TAX RELIEF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Baird) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today as a strong 
supporter of reforming estate tax. In the past 2\1/2\ years, I have 
voted for estate tax reform almost every time it was offered on this 
floor. I even voted to override President Clinton's veto of the bill.
  But since then there have been significant changes in our economy and 
in the tax proposals before this body. This administration, the Bush 
administration, has put all of its political muscle behind a $1.6 
trillion tax cut. The House has already used $958 billion of this 
amount by approving income tax rate cuts, and we have used an 
additional $399 billion to fix the marriage penalty and phase in an 
increase in the child tax credit. Together, these bills have chewed up 
more than $1.36 trillion, 84 percent of the total tax cut proposed by 
the President.
  Mr. Speaker, I will say right now that I think the administration's 
overall proposal is too large. It is too large because we do not know 
whether today's surpluses will be there tomorrow, and there are other 
tax changes which are sure to come before this body which will cost 
billions more.
  What are we going to do to correct the problems associated with the 
alternative minimum tax? What are we going to do about making permanent 
the R&D tax credit? What do we do about fixing other unfair aspects of 
the Tax Code, like reinstating the sales tax deduction?
  If we want to talk about real unfairness, let us reinstate sales tax 
deductibility to establish fairness for Washington State residents and 
the residents of six other States who have no income tax but pay sales 
taxes and cannot deduct them from their Federal return.
  Today's bill should also be about fairness. The estate tax should not 
burden small business, small farms and individuals who have accumulated 
sizable assets through years of hard work. I am frustrated that some in 
Congress are playing numbers games because this bill that we passed 
today does not solve the problem quickly enough for many folks in my 
district. The bulk of the estate tax bill that we passed today will not 
be felt for 10 years. Then what happens in 10 years? The baby boom 
generation retires, and we have increases in our needs for Social 
Security and Medicare.

                              {time}  1645

  It is unclear to me why the majority has not and will not look at 
other legislative proposals to solve the estate tax problems. I am 
frustrated with the ``my way or the highway'' approach that they have 
taken. That is why earlier today I voted against the rule on this bill. 
We should have had more and better options to choose from. It should 
not just be a coin toss.
  The Democrats put forward a bill that would take care of the estate 
problem today for more than 99 percent of all Americans. I do not think 
that bill was perfect, but I think it contained some good ideas. And I 
do think if we took the best parts of the Republican bill, the best 
parts of the Democratic bill, cleaned up some problems, we could have 
had something we all supported. But that does not seem to be the way we 
do business around here these days.
  When I came to this body, we elected a Speaker who pledged 
bipartisan; we elected a President recently who pledged bipartisanship, 
but we are not seeing it. Here was an opportunity for true 
bipartisanship, to get together, draw the best of both bills from both 
parties and come up with a real solution.
  Mr. Speaker, this takes a personal note for me. A month and a half 
ago my father passed away. One of the last things he said to me, quite 
literally one of the last things, was, ``Son, I'm concerned about 
repealing the estate tax. I worry that we risk concentrating wealth too 
heavily in this country.''
  Two days ago I met with the owners of a Toyota dealership who told 
me, ``Congressman, we are concerned that if we have too exorbitant an 
estate tax, we won't be able to pass our dealership on to our kids and 
their families.'' I met with George and Peggy Thoeni, family farmers in 
my district, who have worked their whole life to build a family farm, 
and they want to pass that on to their children.
  Mr. Speaker, my father was right. So are George and Peggy Thoeni, and 
so are Marvin and Shirley McChord. We desperately need to reform the 
estate tax, but we must not do so in a way that concentrates wealth 
inordinately in our country and jeopardizes our financial future.
  Today, I voted for both the Democratic alternative and for final 
passage on the final bill, but we could have done better, Mr. Speaker. 
In true bipartisanship we could have come together, before the bills 
came here, and we could have crafted something that protects family 
businesses and small farms today, not 10 years down the road; that does 
not add new burdensome regulatory complications to the Tax Code; that 
does not allow the very, very wealthiest people in this country to pass 
their estates on with no tax burden whatsoever. We could have done 
that, but we did not.
  I would hope that before this bill finally becomes law, we do come 
together in genuine bipartisanship. In so doing we would honor the 
wishes of both my father, of George and Peggy Thoeni and the McChords. 
Let us do this together, and let us do it right. The people deserve our 
doing so.

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