Permanent Estate Tax Relief For Families, Farmers, And Small Businesses Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. HERGER. I thank my friend and gentleman from Texas for all of the work he has done on this incredibly cruel tax.

Mr. Speaker, far too many families have faced the grim prospect of selling the family farm or business in order to pay the taxes that are due when a loved one dies. My own cousins had to sell their farm that had been in our family since the early 1900s just to pay the death tax. Mr. Speaker, this is simply wrong.

Although it is encouraging that Congress is attempting to provide a long-term certainty about death tax rates, the bill before us falls far short of a stable solution for agriculture and small business. The proposed exemption is simply not enough to protect family farmers, especially with the high cost of land in California and other heavily populated States.

Worse yet, H.R. 4154 fails to index the exemption amount for inflation, thus guaranteeing a repeat of the alternative minimum tax disaster with more and more families facing the death tax in future years. That's why leading pro-agricultural groups like the California Farm Bureau and National Cattlemen's Association do not support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, this House has voted five times since 2001 to repeal the death tax entirely. In fact, no fewer than 65 members of the current Democrat majority have voted to fully repeal the death tax. It is time to end this unfair and cruel death tax once and for all.

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