WASHINGTON (Wednesday, January 6, 1999)—Nearly 200 Representatives joined House Policy Chairman Christopher Cox (R-CA), Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), and Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-TX) today in re-introducing Chairman Cox’s Family Heritage Preservation Act.

    Chairman Cox, whose Death Tax repeal bill was first introduced in 1993, said a new Congressional Joint Economic Committee report showing that the tax "has no redeeming qualities" would push the bill toward passage. President Clinton’s White House Conference on Small Business has made the initiative a top legislative priority.

    According to the new JEC report, the Death Tax "results in a number of destructive outcomes in terms of slower economic growth, reduced social mobility and wasted productive activity." "Moreover," the report found, "the costs imposed by the [Death Tax] far outweigh any benefits that the tax might produce."

    "As the data roll in, the case for the Death Tax evaporates," Chairman Cox said. "It’s time to make tax policy more sensible, and repealing the complicated and costly Death Tax should be goal one."

    Among the new Joint Economic Committee findings are:

• The Death Tax this century has reduced the stock of capital in the economy by approximately $497 billion, or 3.2 percent.
• The Death Tax causes inefficient allocation of resources, discouraging saving and investment and lowering the after-tax return on investments.
• Death Tax rates are extremely punitive, with marginal rates from 37 percent to nearly 80 percent.
• The Death Tax is a leading cause of dissolution for thousands of family-run businesses. Death Tax planning further diverts resources available for investment and employment.
• The Death Tax obstructs environmental conservation. Large Death Tax bills often force families to develop environmentally sensitive land.
• The Death Tax violates the basic principles of a good tax system: it is complicated, unfair and inefficient.
• The Death Tax is a "virtue tax" because it penalizes work, saving and thrift in favor of large-scale consumption.
• Empirical and theoretical research indicates that the Death Tax fails to reduce inequality, and may actually increase inequality of consumption.
• Enormous compliance costs associated with the Death Tax are of the same general magnitude as its revenue yield, or about $23 billion in 1998.
• The charitable bequest deduction stimulates little or no additional giving.
• The Death Tax raises very little, if any, net revenue for the federal government.