Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2005

DEATH TAX REPEAL PERMANENCY ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - April 13, 2005)

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Mr. AKIN. Mr. Speaker, about 50 percent of Americans or so are employed in small businesses, and obviously if something is employing almost half of Americans that are working, that should be a priority. And one can imagine my surprise the other day to find out about a guy who drove up to a bank in an old Ford, about a 15-year-old Ford pickup truck, with rust holes in the floor. He went into that bank and he took out a loan for $2 million. And the head of the bank was inquiring of the guy that is the accountant that handles our books that I have to do as a Congressman. He said, Why in the world did this guy have to take a $2 million loan out? And it particularly seemed out of place with this guy with his old rusty holes in his pickup truck.

He said, His father just died and they have to pay the estate tax on the farm.

I had heard stories like that before, but there it was right in front of me.

So what this bill is seeking to do is to try to make it possible that we do not destroy farms and small businesses that employ close to half the people that have jobs in our country; and that seems to be only reasonable. And yet I am hearing the Democrats saying over here that they are all upset because we have already taxed a dollar the first time the guy earns it; then we are going to tax him again on sales tax and other things he buys, and now it is not fair to tax a dollar the third time it comes around.

It just seems to me we do not want to destroy the businesses and farms. What we want to do is make those jobs available, and we want to get rid of this death tax. Just dying should not be a reason for taxes.

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