News from
Representative Silvestre Reyes
16th Congressional District of Texas
 For Immediate Release:                                                      
June 9, 2000                                                                                                                 
 

REYES VOTES FOR IMMEDIATE ESTATE TAX RELIEF, VOTES AGAINST FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE REPUBLICAN TAX CUT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Representative Reyes voted for the Democratic Substitute to H.R. 8, the Death Tax Repeal Act. The Democratic substitute failed by a vote of 196 to 229. Unlike the fiscally irresponsible Republican bill, the Democratic alternative does not threaten Social Security and Medicare.

Reyes stated, "The back-loaded costs of H.R. 8 will threaten our ability to meet the challenges facing Social Security and Medicare. This explosion in costs will come at the exact time the Social Security and Medicare trust funds will began to feel the stress of the retiring baby-boomer generation."

Reyes continued, "It is clear that America's small, family-owned businesses and farms need relief from the estate tax so that the businesses built with such hard work can be kept in the family. The Democratic alternative provides immediate estate tax relief for family owned farms and businesses. The $4 million per family exclusion for farms and small businesses, the 20 percent across-the-board rate reduction for all estates, and increase in the unified credit to $1.1 million in the Democratic alternative would all take effect immediately. The Republican bill, on the other hand, would make small businesses and family farmers wait for ten years to receive the amount of relief that would be available immediately under the Democratic alternative."

The alternative that Representative Reyes voted for is much more fiscally responsible than H.R. 8. H.R. 8 would cause an enormous long-term revenue loss which will undermine the fiscal discipline that has produced a strong economy. The Republican bill will jeopardize our nation's ability to retire our national debt. It would cost more than $100 billion over the next ten years, with hidden costs which increase dramatically in the coming years. The loss of revenue to the United States government in the second ten-year period will explode to more than $500 billion. The Democratic alternative has a much more modest cost of $22 billion over ten years, without exploding costs.

Reyes stated, "The Democratic alternative does a much better job of targeting relief to those that really need it. It would immediately exempt 99 percent of family farm estates from estate taxes, and reduce the number of estates subject to the estate tax by 50 percent. Furthermore, our alternative would have been signed by the President, unlike this fiscally irresponsible bill which will be vetoed as soon as it reaches the President's desk."


For more information please contact Yvette Pena at (202) 226-8335.