Ranking Member Camp Floor Remarks Against the Death Tax

Madame Speaker, death should not be a taxable event. Death should not force the sale of family farms or the dissolution of small businesses. The fear of death should not be a reason for Americans to hire a battery of accountants and lawyers to find legal ways to reduce the bite of the estate tax. After a long wait, we are about to realize that goal. Set in motion by a law passed by the Republican Congress earlier this decade, there will be no death tax in 2010 thats just 29 days away. The bill before us, however, would resurrect the death tax next month and apply a 45% tax rate to estates above a $3.5 million exemption amount. The Majority claims to be offering certainty to taxpayers. And I suppose in a way they are. They are certainly repealing the hope of ever eliminating the death tax. They are replacing that with the certainty of a federal tax rate that, at 45 percent, must be considered confiscatory. No American should have the federal government take nearly half of their worth. They are providing the certainty of an exemption that is not indexed for inflation, meaning that, over time, it is certain that more and more family farms and small businesses will be subject to this punishing tax. Madame Speaker, one other thing that is certain about this bill is that it is unlikely to be approved before the end of the year. As we are all aware, the Senate is fully engaged in a health care debate and is unlikely to break from it to consider this bill this month, particularly ...



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