Monday, December 31, 2012

Estate Tax Debate Goes Down to the Wire

Representative Lynn Jenkins (R), December 20:

Growing up on a Kansas dairy farm, I know the estate tax is a threat to family farms. This tax makes bailing hay and shoveling manure sound like a get-rich-quick scheme, when most family farms make an average of $45,000 a year. Raising the estate tax to 55 percent and dropping the exemption to $1 million might be feasible for a hedge fund manager, but it will jeopardize the future of farmers and their families….

Senator Richard Durbin (D), December 30:

I am troubled by the notion we are somehow going to give [an estate tax] break to some 6,000 very fortunate Americans and incur a new [sic] expense for our Federal Government of some $130 billion or $140 billion in the process. What are we thinking? *** I hope we aren't forced into any agreement that includes it, although I stand here knowing full well if there is an ultimate compromise, there will be parts of it I find disgusting and reprehensible which I may have to swallow….

Care to pick a winner?

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