[Page: S7998]---
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, a number of Senators who opposed the Death Tax Elimination Act have spoken on the Senate floor in recent weeks, suggesting that only a few people care about the unfairness of the tax.
During the death-tax repeal debate back in July, one of the tax's proponents went so far as to question ``whose side are you on?'' if you favor repeal. I have no difficulty answering that at all. We are on the side of the American people.
A June 22-25 Gallup poll found that 60 percent of the people support repeal, even though about three-quarters of those supporters do not think they will ever have to pay a death tax themselves.
A poll conducted by Zogby International on July 6 found that, given a choice between a candidate who believes that a large estate left to heirs should be taxed at a rate of 50 percent for anything over $2 million, and a candidate who believes that the estate tax is unfair to heirs and should be eliminated, 75 percent of the people prefer the person supporting death-tax repeal.
Other polls similarly put support for repeal at between 70 and 80 percent.
Some issues are simply about fairness. It does not matter who benefits. Death-tax proponents just cannot seem to understand that, but the American people do.
The American people have an unwavering sense of fairness. They recognize that there is something terribly wrong when, despite having taxed someone for a lifetime, the federal government can come back one more time when a person dies and take more than half of whatever is left. That is not only unfair, it threatens the American dream.
That is why repeal scores high with the American people in public-opinion polls. It is why repeal is supported by a broad coalition of small business, minority, environmental, family, and seniors organizations. Among those groups are the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the National Indian Business Association, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the National Federation of Independent Business, to name just a few.
Fairness, that is what the effort to repeal the death tax is all about.
END