Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

e hard to do. It is, however, easy to pass down money. As you can see, this principle breaks
down very quickly.
Yes, a family farmer should be able to pass his farm down to his children. Fortunately,
that hasn't been a problem. As the law existed before Bush took office, family farms
had a $2.6 million ex emption. For family farms worth more than $2.6 million, the heirs had a
grace period of up to fourteen years to pay the tax bill at low interest rates. The fact is that
neither The New York Times nor the American Farm Bureau Federation could find a single
family farm that has ever been lost to the estate tax.
That didn't stop the Republicans from running extremely ugly ads about the issue in
both the 2000 and the 2002 campaigns. My favorite was this radio spot run against Paul
Wellstone in Minnesota:
60 SECOND SPOT: DEATH TAX
SOUND EFFECTS: SOUND OF FARM IMPLEMENTS. CHICKENS CLUCKING, COWS
MOOING.
RUTH
Lloyd? We just got a letter from the IRS!
Ruth, what's wrong?
They say we owe more taxes!
LLOYD
RUTH
LLOYD
Bull! Dad always paid his taxes, even in the worst of times.
We owe taxes 'cause he died?
RUTH
LLOYD
He paid taxes when he worked! He paid taxes on this land, now he dies, and
he has to paymore? Who the hell thought up that doozy?
RUTH
Senator Wellstone just voted to keep the death tax.