Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. Speaker, I come from America's dairy land, the central and northwestern part of Wisconsin, and we have a lot of small dairy farms--300, 500, maybe a thousand acres of small family farms. This death tax, when Dad dies, isn't paid by Dad because he is gone, but the kids who inherit the farm are the ones who pay that tax, and they end up not being able to pay it. So what do they do? They sell to the corporate farm. Repealing the death tax is the ability to keep the American family farm and not transfer these farms to the big corporate conglomerates. If you want to stand with the little guy, let's repeal this thing.
But it is not just farms. I have a family in my community in Wisconsin that employs hundreds of families. They are a manufacturer. A family-owned business. They asked me not to use their name, but they understand that this tax, if two or more of them die at the same time, they can't pay it, and so what they would be forced to do is sell the business, which would more than likely mean that they are going to lose these jobs to some other part of the country or some other part of the world. So now this family, because they love their community, they love the people that work in their company, many for 20 and 30 years, what they won't do is they won't travel together, they won't fly together, they won't drive together, because God forbid, if there were an accident and two of them die, they have to sell a major employer
in our community. They don't travel together, family members, because of this tax.
I hear my friends across the aisle talk about this helping the big, wealthy guy. I agree with the gentleman from Texas who has done such great work on this bill. They don't pay this tax. They don't pay. They have great lawyers, great estate planners. It is the guys in the middle that are employing folks in their community that pay this tax; and when they have to pay it, that means jobs for middle class Americans.
I think we should all stand up in this House, and we should stand with the middle class Americans, the middle-income Americans, and let's work to repeal this bill to make sure that we have a vibrant, prosperous, middle class in America.
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