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U.S.
Senator Member: Agriculture, Energy, Veterans' Affairs, Ethics and Aging Committees |
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For Immediate
Release June 8, 2006 |
CONTACT: Cody Wertz – Comm. Director 303-455-7600 Andrew Nannis – Press Secretary 202-224-5852 |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States Senator Ken Salazar today voted against a partisan bill that would have benefited the richest of the rich and added more than $500 billion to the national debt – an amount greater than all the money spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. “We must reform permanently the Estate Tax,” Salazar said. “Complete repeal of the tax will add hundreds of billions to our National debt, which is unacceptable, and benefit only a few of the nation’s wealthiest families. I have been working with key moderate Senators to find a bipartisan compromise that protects family farms, ranches, and small businesses and minimizes impact on the National debt. We cannot continue to run up our debt, knowing full well that our children and grandchildren will be stuck with the bill.” Currently, all estates worth less than $2 million for an individual and $4 million for a couple are exempt from the tax. The current estate tax will expire in 2010 if no new legislation is passed before then. The exemption rises to $3.5 million and $7 million for a couple in 2009, exempting 99.7 percent of all estates nationally. In 2003, when the exemption level was only $1 million per person, 99.6 percent of Colorado descendents paid no estate tax. “After Hurricane Katrina, Senate leaders decided it was inappropriate to extend this tax break for multi-millionaires following the greatest natural disaster in our nation’s history,” added Salazar. “I wonder, though, why those same leaders believe that now is the time to hand the richest of the rich another tax break with a war in Iraq, $3 per gallon gas, and a devastating drought in the West.”
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