mr. speaker , i rise today as a proud cosponsor of h.r. 8 , the death tax repeal permanency act of 2005 .  first , i would like to take this opportunity to thank the gentleman from missouri ( mr. hulshof )  for his leadership on the bill .  mr. speaker , i do not believe that there has ever been a more reprehensible tax on the face of the earth than the death tax .  the death tax represents not only a tax on the deceased but also on their families .  husbands , wives and children and other relatives bear the burden of this tax while they are still struggling to cope with the loss of their loved one .  mr. speaker , it is intolerable and absolutely unacceptable for the federal government to exact a tax on death and on the surviving families , causing them to lose their homes , their business , their farms and the lives they have struggled to build .  after all , they have created and established these businesses with after-tax dollars .  taxes have already been paid , and every bit of profit that they might make in a year is taxed as well .  currently , the repeal of the death tax is set to expire in 2010 ; and , mr. speaker , i can not understand how anyone would allow the federal government to hand a grieving family in 2011 a bill for the death of their loved one .  death 's inevitability should not be a taxable event .  mr. speaker , let us get the federal government off the backs of grieving families and pass this rule and this bill for the sake of fairness and decency .  