mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman from washington ( mr. hastings ) xz4001711 for yielding me this time . 
mr. speaker , i rise today in support of this rule and h.r. 8 . 
i applaud the efforts of the leadership and the gentleman from missouri in bringing forward h.r. 8 to finally bury the death tax once and for all . 
one thing i have learned in the short time i have sat here is that the democrats really look at the person whom this bill would affect , and , by the way , i do not think any of them are watching this on tv right now because they are all probably at work , but they are looking at the person whom this bill would affect as someone who got up early , worked hard all his life , looked after his family , built infrastructure , saved money , put capital back into this system , provided jobs , benefits , health care for people , and the democrats look at this individual as a gift who keeps on giving . 
one of the things our country needs is individuals who are willing to work hard and save their money . 
it is the basis of our economy and the american dream . 
this country is a wonderful land of opportunity . 
anyone can work hard and be whatever they want to be in this country . 
yet our tax system directly discourages savings by limiting contributions to iras and taxing dividends . 
when one works hard and saves , they should be rewarded , not punished . 
the current death tax punishes people for saving their own money , for fulfilling the american dream . 
tax cuts do not cost the u.s. government money . 
this is something that i think is misunderstood up here . 
cutting taxes does not cost the government money . 
it allows people who earn that money to keep more of it in their pocket . 
this congress must recognize that tax cuts spur economic growth . 
we have seen this in the reagan tax cuts that led to the boom of the 1990s and in this president 's tax cuts that have brought us out of the recession that this country experienced after 9/11 . 
as a small business owner , i know firsthand how hard one has to work to build a business . 
and most times the assets of a family business are not in cash , or easily so . 
when a family business is hit with an estate tax , it often requires the selling of a large amount of inventory or other assets in order to pay the debt . 
that is not right . 
that hurts families who want to continue the legacy of their loved ones who have passed away . 
why do we want to harm or punish or exploit those who work their hardest to create an inheritance for their loved ones ? 
the death tax has made crooks out of honest people because they have to search for all kinds of ways to avoid paying the tax . 
and the reason they do not want to pay this tax is because they hate to see everything that someone that they loved and deeply cared about who spent their whole life building is taken away by the government . 
small businesses should not be run while looking over one 's shoulder to make sure the tax man is not about to get them . 
small business owners must be able to focus on their business . 
more than 70 percent of small family businesses do not last beyond the second generation , and the estate tax plays a large part in that . 
having someone pay half of their assets to the government is absolutely wrong no matter what is being paid . 
we all know that people can manage their own money much better than the government . 
one of the things i hate more than anything is a double tax . 
when the government takes its bite out of the apple , it should not get a second bite . 
yet the death tax takes an even bigger bite out of the money that has already been taxed . 
economic studies have shown that the cost of trying to comply or avoid the death tax consumes as much out of the economy as is generated by the death tax itself . 
the death tax also hits those who can not afford a lawyer or a cpa to help them . 
if their assets are not in cash , as in most family businesses they are not , they have to make a huge burden and sacrifice that they are not ready for by having to get somebody else to advise them about how to take care of their families and their children . 
and in spite of all this , the death tax does not even generate that much revenue or `` windfall profit '' for the government , yes , a `` windfall profit '' for the government , while placing this huge burden on the families of this country . 
it is not right . 
the idea of the tax coming back in 2011 is amazing . 
it just does not make sense , and people can not make any long-term financial plans . 
getting rid of the death tax will simplify our nation 's laws and ease the burden on our country . 
if it takes a cpa or a lawyer to figure out what one is trying to do and what burdens the government has put on them , then it is too much of a burden . 
we need to do everything we can to lessen that burden . 
repealing the death tax is the right thing to do . 
although i was not in congress when the phase-out of the death tax began , i am thrilled to be here today to cosponsor and vote for it to be completely eliminated . 
and i urge all of my colleagues to do the same . 
