Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Can you imagine working your whole life to build up a family-owned business or a farm, and then, upon your death, Uncle Sam swoops in and takes nearly half of what you have spent a lifetime building up for your children and grandchildren?

Can you imagine this case, as my friend from Washington talked about? This was a farm that had been in his family since the 1880s--five generations. It didn't start that size--it started small--and they built up over years and years and generations and generations. When the young woman went back to Texas--she actually worked up here and went back to Texas to settle her aunt's estate--she and her brother were
forced to sell off two-thirds of the farm that they had had for five generations. They had to sell off two-thirds of it just to pay Uncle Sam, just to try to keep some small portion of what their family had worked so hard to build.

These are real life examples of how the death tax is the wrong tax at the wrong time, and it hurts the wrong people. It is the number one reason family-owned businesses and farms aren't passed down to the next generations. It is at its heart an immoral tax, and it is an attack on the American Dream, especially more so for our newest startups in America--women- and minority-owned businesses that are building wealth
for the first time, hoping that they can create a nest egg, that they can create a business for their children and grandchildren so that they have greater opportunities in this great country.

I really want to thank my Democrat lead sponsor, Congressman Sanford Bishop of Georgia, for his leadership to repeal the death tax and for his belief that you shouldn't punish success.

I want to thank my colleague on the Ways and Means Committee, Representative Kristi Noem; longtime champion, Congressman Mac Thornberry; and a former colleague of mine on the Ways and Means Committee, former Representative Kenny Hulshof, who carried this legislation for so long.

The superrich don't pay this tax. They have a legion of lawyers and tax planners, and they have charitable trusts and foundations. They never pay this tax. These are family-owned, hard-working, risk-taking, determined Americans who are building their businesses, their farms, their ranches. These are not, as we will hear today, the Paris Hiltons and robber barons of the Teddy Roosevelt days. These are Americans who
are often forced back to the bank for a loan or who are cruelly forced to sell their land and businesses just to satisfy the IRS.

Death tax supporters will tell you this is all about income inequality, but it turns out, according to a former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman, with regard to income inequality only 2 percent is related to what people inherit. In America, it turns out we do build
our prosperity. We pull ourselves up to prosperity. Some people say, Look, this thing generates $200-plus billion.

Let me put this in perspective. For all of the damage it does to our family-owned businesses and farms, the damage it will do to our women-owned businesses and minority-owned businesses that are building wealth, it will generate less than 2 days of Federal spending a year, and it is declining.

At the end of the day, there is a basic question: Is this your money and your hard work, or is this the government's money? Who has the claim over all of the years you have spent working? Why, at the end of the day, are we punishing success?

Let's give children and let's give our families their shot at the American Dream and a better nation than the one, frankly, we inherited. That is why, today, we rise to bury the death tax once and for all.

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I know the gentleman from California is sincere, but his approach was tried before. It failed so miserably to protect farms, it was repealed, I think, 3 years later. No more gimmicks. Let's actually help these family-owned farm businesses.

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I would point out studies show we would generate more money by repealing this tax than keeping it because people wouldn't put their money into tax shelters and other things and instead would put it back in their business into job creation.

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Madam Speaker, feel free to dismiss the woman in my district, a widow, who now has been forced back to the bank for the third time to take out a loan just to be able to keep the family farm they worked generations--worked generations--to keep and hand down. Dismiss her as the Paris Hiltons of the world, as the superrich.

Dismiss the 114 organizations who back the repeal. Most of them are Main Street businesses who support this Death Tax Repeal Act. They are storeowners; they are loggers--loggers in the field--and they are plumbers. There is a glamorous life. That is the superrich.

That is who, after these people worked years and years and weekends and nights to build up their business, these are the ones who, when they pass away, Uncle Sam swoops in and confiscates--takes--nearly half of what they have built a lifetime earning. Dismiss them if you will, but this is the American Dream.

The American Dream is not a government that promises you welfare checks and food stamps. The American Dream is the thought that you can build yourself up and pull yourself up through hard work, skills, and dedication and that you can build a better life for your family and then give it to your children and grandchildren so maybe, just maybe, they have a better chance at the American Dream, that they have
opportunities maybe you didn't have that they can pass on to their children.

You will hear today, Oh, this only affects a few. Those are the people who pay the tax. One out of three businesses, more than that, are farmers. They are already paying money into tax planning. They are putting money aside; they are spending hours that they would rather put into their farm and their business. They would rather hire young people and new people looking for jobs, but instead, they are trying to avoid this horrible tax.

All for what? For a measly 2 days of Federal spending--actually less than that--this government wastes so much money. It just pours it out of here. Instead of tightening our belt, we attack the American Dream of hard-working families and businesses.

Many of them, by the way, are women and minority-owned businesses building wealth for the first time, believing the American Dream is right for them. They are not Paris Hilton. They are not robber barons. They are not the people who are dismissed on the floor today.

At the end of the day, this is the simple question: Whose money is it? Whose hard work and years is it? Is it government's? Is it the Washington politicians' who will take your money in time, force you to tell your business or family-owned farm and waste it on who knows what? Or is it your money, your hard work, and your American Dream? Are you allowed to keep that dream and help your family going forward? Or is it
the government's dream, whatever that could be?

At the end of the day, what I love the most about America is we don't resent success. We strive for it. Whatever success is for each of us, we strive for it. We are absolutely convinced that we can achieve it for us and that we can maybe give our kids a chance going forward.

This is a simple question. If you stand with those who believe it is the government's money and hard work, vote ``no,'' but if you stand with our family-owned farms, businesses, young people, and those chasing the American dream, vote ``yes'' to end the death tax once and for all.

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Madam Speaker, all this is a red herring. The desperation you hear is for a government in Washington that desperately wants to keep spending your money on $800 toilets and on research projects that make no sense and who feel free to waste your money at
will because they are not the ones who worked a lifetime to earn it.

Madam Speaker, today, we heard Congresswoman Kristi Noem talk about the tragedy of her dad and how, 3 days after his death, they were notified by Uncle Sam that they owed or they would have to sell their ranch.

We heard from a gentleman from Texas whose dad built up from one car and four stalls a family-owned car dealership with 400 workers. It was a profitable company that nearly went bankrupt because they had to pay Uncle Sam or sell the business. They
worked 20 years to pay off that loan.

My constituent, a woman who is widowed, was forced back to the bank for the third time, paying death tax for her grandfather, her father, and now her and her husband, just to keep the family farm they have worked generations on. These are the people who are punished by this tax.

It is not the government's money and work. It is yours. This is all about that issue. At the end of the day, unless we want to keep attacking the American Dream and insisting that Uncle Sam swoop in and take your nest egg, it is time to restore the American Dream and to end the death tax once and for all.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to defeat this motion to recommit.

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