[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11871]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  PERMANENTLY REPEALING THE DEATH TAX

  (Mr. KELLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give the American people 
some straight talk on why we need to permanently repeal the death tax.
  The death tax causes one-third of all family-owned small businesses 
to liquidate after the death of the owner. It is also an unfair tax 
because the assets have already been taxed once at their income level.
  If Congress doesn't act to fix this problem, then in the year 2010 
the death tax will be zero. But in 2011 the death tax will go back up 
to 55 percent in tax rates.
  The only family-owned business in America that knows for sure whether 
their leader will die in 2010 is The Sopranos.
  The uncertainty of the death tax makes it impossible for people to 
write their wills or do their estate planning.
  On April 13, 2005, the House acted to permanently repeal the death 
tax. On June 8, 2006, the Senate fell just three votes short. I urge 
the Senate to try again to develop a permanent solution to the death 
tax so we can fix this problem once and for all this year.

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