mr. speaker , i rise in support of h.r. 8 , which will finally free america 's hard-working farmers and small business owners from the specter of the death tax . 
benjamin franklin said : `` in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes , '' but i doubt even the inventive mr. franklin imagined the taxation of death itself . 
americans get taxed when they earn money . 
they get taxed again when they spend what is left , and government pursues them beyond the grave , devastating their relatives who must sell the family farm or liquidate the family business just to pay the taxes . 
the impact of the death tax extends far beyond the pain it inflicts upon grieving families . 
the death tax distorts economic decisions on a massive scale . 
it punishes thrift . 
it reduces savings and investment , and it diverts capital away from job creation to tax avoidance . 
the national federation of independent businesses has estimated that the death tax will compel one-third of small business owners today to sell some or all of their business . 
the center for the study of taxation found that 70 percent of all family businesses can not survive the second generation and 87 percent do not make the third . 
all of this wasted money , energy and over 100 , 000 jobs lost per year and for what , a tax that the joint economic committee says costs just as much to collect as it generates in revenue . 
mr. speaker , the opponents of h.r. 8 can not provide any justification for the continued existence of this useless relic . 
it hurts the people it is intended to help , and it reduces stock in our economy by $ 497 billion a year . 
i urge my colleagues to drive the final nail in this coffin so 6 years from now americans will not wake up to find that , like a vampire , this unfair tax has arisen from the dead to once again suck the blood from a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice . 
