Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 12/5/17

Sen. Chuck Grassley's comments to The Des Moines Register about the estate tax prompted a barrage of criticism, and also returned to the spotlight a debate over how much the "death tax," as some critics call it, truly affects farmers. 

Grassley framed the levy as penalizing savers without holding spenders accountable: "I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing, as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it's on booze or women or movies," the Iowa Republican said. 

In a statement Monday, Grassley said his comment was taken out of context, and that his point was that the government shouldn't "seize the fruits of someone's lifetime of labor after they die." The Senate version of tax bill would increase the estate tax exemption from about $5 million to $11 million, and double that for couples (a 40 percent tax would be assessed on the value above the exemption of an estate transferred to heirs after a person dies).

Republican lawmakers who support eliminating the estate tax, which the House version would eventually do, have long used its potential impact on farmers and ranchers as justification for repealing it. But USDA data and a 2015 Congressional Research Service report all show that very few farmers will actually pay the tax in any given year, as The Register pointed out. CRS found that just 65 farm estates will pay any estate tax when being passed on to heirs. The USDA has a slightly higher estimate at 160. Both figures represent less than 1 percent of all U.S. farms.