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| This week in Congress, my colleagues and I took
a major step toward sensible tax relief by eliminating the estate tax,
otherwise known as the death tax, from our current tax system. Our
government already taxes a person’s income when they earn it. Shouldn’t
that be enough? It just does not make sense that when a person dies,
the government wants to double-dip and take a piece of the nest egg that
he or she worked and saved a lifetime to build.
That is why, on Thursday, June 6th, I voted for a Republican sponsored plan to permanently repeal the estate tax, and I am pleased that the House of Representatives passed this measure. Last year, Congress passed a new law that gradually phases out the estate tax over the next ten years and that raises the current estate tax exemption from $675,000 to $1 million by the year 2006. This new legislation, the Permanent Death Tax Repeal Act, repeals the sunset provisions on that law, making the estate tax a permanent thing of the past by the end of this decade. It must still be approved by the Senate and signed into law by the President. While I continue to support a responsible budget that allows us to pay down our $6 trillion national debt and invest in important priorities such as defense, education, and modernizing Medicare to include prescription drugs for our seniors, I believe eliminating the death tax is the kind of tax relief that we can afford, and that American people want and deserve. The bill now goes to the Senate for their consideration. |
