Providing for Consideration of H.R. 5638, Permanent Estate Tax Relief Act of 2006

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 5638, PERMANENT ESTATE TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 22, 2006)

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, The Washington Post reports today that middle-class neighborhoods are evaporating in America. It says that it is happening because the gap in this country between the rich and poor is rising at an alarming rate, making it harder for families to raise their children.

And what we consider today will only speed up that process: an estate tax cut giving an enormous tax cut to the richest 10,000 estates in the Nation, no one else. And don't let them fool you, it is not about small business, it is not about family farms; the 10,000 richest estates in the Nation. It will cost $762 billion in the first 10 years alone, this at a time when we are spending between $5 billion and $8 billion per month on the war in Iraq.

Meanwhile, our productivity as a Nation has risen by about 14 percent as the real wages of nonmanagerial workers have risen less than 2 percent. So when people look at the statistics, they wonder where is the rest of that money going? All they need to do is look at this Congress and the Republican leadership of this House emptying the Treasury for the likes of millionaires and billionaires.

Democrats believe this country is not about survival of the fittest but opportunity for all. Democrats understand the pressures on middle-class families: rising health care costs, education, home heating oil, gas prices. We believe we could be raising the minimum wage, one of the best tools we have to keep families from falling off that economic cliff. It has not been raised in almost a decade. Had it been adjusted just for inflation since 1968, those families would be making $9.05 instead of $5.15.

And if this Congress can get a raise, the American people ought to be able to get a raise. But the Republican majority is afraid to let this House even have a debate, a choice, between yet another tax cut for millionaires and a wage increase for families. They are afraid of that real debate that Americans want to have about their economic future.

The American people want us to walk in their shoes, understand their lives. They don't want to see millionaires and billionaires be able to get a tax cut that will help to bankrupt this Nation. What they do want to see is their wages increase. We need to raise the minimum wage and oppose this rule.

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