In this Obama big-spending, high-taxing socialist era, at least one Republican in the United States House of Representatives is fighting back. The Chairman of the House Values Action Team, Congressman Joe Pitts, R-PA, introduced a bill last week which would permanently repeal the death tax, which liberals call the estate tax. What the Pitts' legislation will accomplish will be to allow family-owned farms and small businesses to remain in the hands of the families which inherit them.

Congressman Pitts said regarding his "Permanent Repeal of the Death Tax Act," H.R. : "Death should not be a taxable event. It is family-owned farms and small businesses who suffer the most from this unjust tax because these people pass down the business or the farm in the family. But the death tax can force farms and small businesses to sell assets just to satisfy the tax authorities.

"My bill would simply repeal the death tax for good so that farmers and small business owners can pass along their operation to their children without the risk of having to dismantle the business and sell off assets in order to placate the tax man."

The Republican-controlled Congress passed legislation in 2001 -- it was signed into law by President George W. Bush -- to phase out the death tax over a number of years. The death tax would be totally eliminated for fiscal year 2010 which begins this coming October 1st. However, under the current law, those tax cuts will sunset and the death tax will be restored to the almost confiscatory tax rates of 55%. What Congressman Pitts' "Permanent Repeal of the Death Tax Act" would do would be to get rid of the sunset clause in the 2001 law, thus eliminating all of the death tax."

When the Pitts legislation becomes law, families which own farms and small businesses will not be wiped out when the owner of the farm or business dies. It is time for the death tax to die a permanent death.