GOP Freshman Class on Comprehensive Tax Reform

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY. I would like to thank my friend from New York (Mr. Reed).

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the things that are certain in life. People always say there's two things you can be certain of. One is death and the other is taxes. There's another one that we're going to be certain of after January 1, and that is you're going to continue to pay taxes after death.

In a government that borrows 42 cents of every dollar it spends, it comes as no surprise that we can't even let the dead relax. They're still going to be taxed beyond what they ever could have possibly imagined in real life.

So we look at a country that now has the highest corporate tax in the industrial world; we're going to have the highest or the second highest death tax in the world. And why? Because of a town that's never learned to do what it tells all of its citizens to do: live within your means, play fair, pay your fair share.

Well, I would just suggest to you that, in addition to that, what we're telling people is, look, you don't have the certainty anymore that you have planned your estate the right way, because after January 1 this government is going to come up with heavier taxes on its citizens--not the ones that are on the ground and living, but the ones that have already died, that have paid their fair share, that have played within the rules, that have done everything they're supposed to do as good citizens of this great country. They're going to be told at the end of their life that you cannot go to your final resting place in peace. No. Everything that you have accumulated in your life and already paid taxes on is going to be taxed again.

And who is it that's going to face that burden? All those people that we tried to work so hard for, that we tried to put things aside for. Our children and our grandchildren are facing a hockey stick of spending that goes up and off the charts. Again, a country that cannot live within its own means, and yet an administration that tells its citizenry you have to pay your fair share, the rich are not paying their fair share.

Listen, farms are not only going to go away because those assets are going to have to be liquidated to pay death taxes, small businesses are also going to be harmed by this new tax. They're going to have to liquidate in order to pay the estate taxes that are left over after somebody has worked their whole life, paid their fair share, done what they're supposed to do, lived within their means. But that's not enough. That's not enough for this administration. They will continue to rip off from your pocket after death that which you have worked so hard to earn over your lifetime.

There is nothing more prickly; not even the sharpest cactus in the desert has more prickly pins on it than this law and this rule in the way it's coming.

So I would just say to all my friends, if it's really about being fair, if it's really about playing by the rules, if it's really about a stewardship where you take what is given to you and you pass it on to the next generation in better shape than you got it, my goodness, how have we strayed so far from a basic American principle as that? How have we strayed so far as to tell those who have worked so hard in their lifetime that even in their death they cannot rest, they cannot be assured of that which they have worked so hard in order to pass on to the next generation is going to be vulnerable? Fifty-five percent tax on your estate.

The liquidation of family farms, the liquidation of family businesses, the liquidation of the dreams of our children and grandchildren, all of them go up in smoke as this tsunami of tax increases that this administration will be forcing on the American people after January 1.

I thank my friend from New York for bringing this issue up.

Mr. REED. Well, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for joining us here tonight.

In listening to your comments, I wholeheartedly agree that what we're seeing at the end of this year, if Washington, D.C., does not get its act together--and we as the freshman class, I think, are doing a great job in holding this city accountable and really changing the culture of Washington, D.C. The job has just started. We have a lot more work to do, and we'll continue to go forward on that mission.

But what we have to commit ourselves to is, if we do not act by the end of the year, the largest tax increase in the history of America will go into effect with the expiration of the individual tax rates, the reinstatement of the estate taxes at levels of 55 percent and beyond, and we need to act.

Mr. KELLY. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. REED. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. KELLY. I think the other thing that is very important to understand is that we talk about competing in the global economy. Now, our friends to the north in Canada do not have a death tax. Our friends to the south in Mexico do not have a death tax. This, again, is an example of an administration that is so out of touch with the real world, that has never had any skin in the game, never understood that in order to produce a profit you must first know how to create one and not just how to tax it. But we are, again, taking ourselves out of the global economy and we are telling our people, You know what? You may be better off living in Canada or in Mexico, especially if you've accumulated anything in your lifetime, because you're not going to be able to pass it on to the next generation.

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