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[Juliana Dutra <kila01 AT yahoo.com>]

Taxing Issues

Interview with  Representative Connie Mack of the 14th
district (R - FL). by DEBORAH SOLOMON, NYT
Published: October 23, 2005

DS: Do you find it difficult to cut taxes
post-Katrina, when the government is desperate for
revenue? 

CM: The Congress and the president can address that
issue. Of course, the president already has addressed
that issue. He said there won't be any increases in
taxes.

DS: Indeed, he is still calling for tax cuts. He would
like to eliminate the estate tax permanently.

CM: I think there is a likelihood that Congress will
deal with that issue before this term comes to an end.
I would vote to eliminate, as we refer to it, the
death tax. I think it's an unfair tax.

DS: Really? I think it's a perfect tax. The idea
behind it was to allow people to postpone paying taxes
until they die, at which point they presumably no
longer care. Why do you call it unfair?

CM: Well, let's say, if you are in the farming
business and you have the desire to pass this farm on
to your children. The problem is that when your
parents die, you have to come up with cash to pay the
estate tax. One thing you don't have is cash. You've
got plenty of land. So I just don't believe it's a
fair tax.

DS: That strikes me as a red herring. The issue is not
really small farms, but zillion-dollar estates made up
of stocks and bonds.

CM: I don't know what the percentage breakdown is. I
still go back to the same notion that these
individuals who have accumulated these resources have
paid taxes on them many times in their life, and then
to say, when you die, now you pay more taxes on it?
There is a limit.

DS: Well, the U.S. government has to get money from
somewhere. As a two-term former Republican senator
from Florida, where do you suggest we get money from?

CM: What money?

DS: The money to run this country.

CM: We'll borrow it.

DS: I never understand where all this money comes
from.

CM: When the president says we need another $200
billion for Katrina repairs, does he just go and
borrow it from the Saudis? In a sense, we do. Maybe
the Chinese.

DS: Is that fair to our children? If we keep borrowing
at this level, won't the Arabs or the Chinese
eventually own this country?

CM: I am not worried about that. We are a huge country
producing enormous assets day in and day out. We have
great strength, and we have always adjusted to
difficulties that faced us, and we will continue to do
so. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/magazine/23questions.html