DEATH TAX OVERRIDE -- (House of Representatives - September 07, 2000)

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(Mr. KNOLLENBERG asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Speaker, if there is one thing that makes the United States a unique country, it is our idea that anyone with a strong work ethic can succeed in America.

For over 100 years, men and women have emigrated to this country to take advantage of the tangible ideal we call the American Dream. Not surprisingly, the Internal Revenue Service is taxing the American Dream into the grave with a mean-spirited provision called the death tax.

The death tax hurts average Americans who cannot afford to pay high-price lawyers to settle their affairs. As a result, 70 percent of small businesses do not survive into the second generation. That is totally unfair.

This Congress passed a bill to repeal the onerous death tax. Regrettably, the Clinton-Gore administration vetoed it.

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Let us show the Clinton-Gore administration that the American dream is still alive. I urge my colleagues to support overriding the death tax veto.

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