For more than 60 years, her family had worked the land. The second most devastating event was sitting down with our estate attorney after his death. I'll never forget his words. We own this land. Here a family works for more than half a century to build a ranch, only to hear that estate taxes would rob them of their legacy, their heritage, their home.
Mother worries constantly and has had many sleepless nights.
I don't know if any of you could ever imagine how hard it has been on her. She doesn't have her husband anymore. She worked hard her whole life and gave up a lot of material things to put her after-tax dollars back into the land to pay it off. It's not right that the reward for this success is that today our taxes are the highest percent of our Gross National Product than at any other time in post-war history. After paying for the government programs for which Congress has planned and budgeted, the change must now be returned to the taxpayer.