Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 622, State And Local Sales Tax Deduction Fairness Act of 2015; Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 1105, Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015; And Providing For Consideration of H.R. 1195, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Advisory Boards Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for yielding. I rise in strong support of the rule and especially in strong support of the underlying legislation to repeal the death tax in the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, if you look at what the death tax is, this is an attack on family-owned businesses. You are talking about people who have built up, as part of the American Dream, built up businesses that are creating jobs across this country.

These people, by the way, paid taxes all along the way as they were building up that business. The business has already been taxed multiple times in some cases by the Federal Government; yet because of the death tax, when the businessowner dies, the first thing the Federal Government does is Uncle Sam shows up not to issue condolences to the grieving family, but to send them a massive tax bill that, in many cases, Mr. Speaker--in many cases--threatens the very existence of that business.

What we hear from small-businessowners all across the country and family-owned businesses is that, in many cases, when their loved ones die, while they are trying to figure out how to grieve and how to take care of the family from there, in many cases, they have to spend those first few weeks figuring out how or even if they can keep the family-owned business.

In many cases, we see people having to sell their family-owned business that they wanted to pass on to the next generation just to pay the death tax.

This is morally wrong, Mr. Speaker, that the Federal Government taxes people on their death after they have already paid taxes building up their businesses, wanting to pass on the American Dream.

Part of the American Dream is not just to own a home or to create good jobs for people, but to be able to pass that on to your kids so that they can experience and live that same dream as well and continue to grow and create jobs.

What we see so many times because of this death tax is that many businessowners spend so much of their time and their resources trying to figure out how to shield their business from the death tax.

A lot of people aren't paying this tax. They are paying a lot of accountants and attorneys to figure out how to avoid the death tax so they can pass it on to their kids. That is money--millions and billions of dollars--that they could be spending growing their business, growing jobs, and creating more opportunities for other people not only to have that first job, but to then go out and create their own small business.

But, lo and behold, if they are too successful, Mr. Speaker, and they grow that business big enough and they have kids they want to pass it on to, eventually, they are going to die, and the one constant they know is that their kids will have to face that same decision of whether or not to sell the family business just to pay the Federal Government over their death.

This is morally wrong. It is time we repeal this death tax and preserve the American Dream for those family-owned businesses all across this country.

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