Congressional Budget For The United States Government For Fiscal Year 2008

Floor Speech

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 -- (Senate - March 22, 2007)

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Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I thank the Senator from North Dakota for accommodating us. I thank the Senator from Arizona for his leadership on this issue. I have supported his efforts for some time to get rid of the death tax. I have supported getting rid of this unfair tax going back to my days as a Member of the House of Representatives.

Last year, I came down to the Senate floor and gave examples of real-life family farms that are facing the effects of the death tax. I wanted to remind Senators of two of those family farms. I think sometimes it gets lost. We think we are dealing with these concepts in the abstract, but they affect real people. These stories are real, and the effect of the tax is real as well.

The first example is a 3,000-acre family farm operation in central South Dakota. In my State, that is a medium-sized operation. A death occurred in this family and, as a result, $750,000 will likely be paid in taxes. This is a huge amount of money for a farm operation in my State, where land values can make an operation look a lot more valuable on paper than they are in reality.

In other words, farmers such as this can often be described as ``land rich'' but ``cash poor.'' All their value is in the land. When a massive death tax bill comes due, the only option is often to sell the land to pay the unfair and unjust tax. Thus, a family legacy comes to an end.

The second example is a 10,000-acre operation in north central South Dakota. Similar to so many farms and ranches in my State, the parents who have run the place for decades are getting older. Their kids would like to continue in the business, but the death tax on that farm would likely be $1.5 million. That would make it virtually impossible for the kids to stay on the farm and keep that family farm operation going. I find it extremely disturbing that our Federal Tax Code could influence a family's ability to keep their family farm from being broken up and sold off.

The budget resolution is more than a list of numbers. It is a statement of our priorities. These priorities are going to impact real people. I believe our budget should show we are prioritizing family farms, family ranches, and small businesses. We can show that these family small businesses are a priority by making room in the budget for permanent, meaningful death tax reform.

The death tax is a completely unfair tax because Americans pay their fair share of taxes throughout their life on what they earn, what they own, what they buy, only to see the IRS take one last bite when they die.

It is also unfair because the Donald Trumps and Paris Hiltons of the world have teams of lawyers and accountants to make sure they pay little or no death tax. But the family-owned operations and small businesses I talked about are the ones that end up paying.

It is for these reasons that Congress acted a few years ago to repeal the death tax, but because of some strange rules that can only be devised in a place such as the Senate, the death tax comes back to life in the year 2011.

I believe we need to enact permanent, meaningful death tax reform this year. This amendment takes us down that path. I hope my colleagues on both sides will support it. I credit the Senator from Arizona for drafting this in a way that is consistent with the proposal offered last year by a colleague on the other side. I hope Members on both sides can support this, and I hope, once and for all, we will get rid of this unfair and unjust tax.

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