mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me time . 
i thank the gentleman for his leadership on this issue . 
i think it is important that we spend a moment or two and talk about how we got here , why do we have a death tax and what is its consequence ; what is the fundamental we are talking about . 
the death tax began in 1916 in order to fund world war i , a noble cause but a cause that has long since passed . 
it remained through the 1920s and 1930s under the rationale that we should prevent the accumulation of wealth , an issue more than addressed with our current anti-trust laws . 
the death tax has become a harmful relic of previous times . 
it survives through the inertia of government and now has the consequence of punishing hard work and success . 
it harms families , and it kills small businesses . 
families should not have to visit the undertaker and the tax collector on the very same day . 
the death tax is fundamentally unfair and violates what should be our principle of freedom and liberty and the imperative of personal property rights . 
freedom and liberty demand that hard-working americans be able to leave their children and their grandchildren the results of their diligence and their success and not have washington get a windfall . 
i urge all of my colleagues to act positively today on behalf of all americans and let the death tax die for good . 
