    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 23 (Monday, June 12, 2000)]
    [Pages 1315-1316]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives on Estate Tax
    Legislation

    June 8, 2000

    Dear Mr. Speaker:

        I recognize that some small businesses and family farms struggle
    with the estate tax and am committed to working with you to relieve this
    burden. I am supportive of targeted, fiscally responsible legislation to
    make the estate tax fairer, simpler, and more efficient. I believe the
    alternative proposed by Representatives Rangel, Cardin, and Stenholm,
    which would exempt most small businesses and family farms from the
    estate tax entirely, promotes these objectives in a fiscally responsible
    manner.
        We should not, however, turn our backs on fiscal discipline by
    passing a regressive, poorly targeted, and expensive repeal of the
    estate tax. If you send me a bill to completely repeal the estate tax, I
    will veto it rather than risk the fiscal progress that has contributed
    to the longest economic expansion in history.
        The cost of the estate tax repeal would explode just as the baby
    boom generation begins to retire, putting at risk our ability to extend
    the life of Medicare and Social Security, pay down the debt, and meet
    other important national priorities. The full cost of this legislation
    is hidden because the repeal is phased in over ten years. Although it
    would cost about $100 billion from 2001-10, the drain on the surplus
    would increase seven-fold to over $750 billion over the following ten
    years.

    [[Page 1316]]

        Repealing the estate tax would undermine the progressivity,
    fairness, and integrity of the tax system. In 2010, the repeal of the
    estate and gift taxes would provide a $50 billion tax break. But this
    estate tax repeal would benefit only 54,000 estates--about 2 percent of
    decedents--providing an average tax cut of $800,000. Small businesses
    and family farms would receive a tiny fraction of the benefits of this
    proposal, while the largest estates would enjoy enormous windfalls. In
    addition, studies indicate that, without the estate tax, charitable
    donations and bequests would fall by $5 billion to $6 billion per year.
        I would like to work with the bipartisan Congressional leadership to
    enact legislation to reduce the burden of the estate tax on small
    businesses and family farms, provided it is done in an overall framework
    of fiscal discipline that strengthens Social Security and Medicare,
    invests in key priorities, and pays down the debt by 2013. I look
    forward to working with you to accomplish this goal.
         Sincerely,
                                                      Bill Clinton