Permanent Estate Tax Relief Act of 2006
PERMANENT ESTATE TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 22, 2006)
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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Thank you, Mr. Rangel, very much.
What the other side wants you to believe today is that this is tax relief for the average American. What the majority whip said a couple of moments ago was interesting. He said the economy is growing; we have to keep the economy growing. He cleverly neglected to mention the deficits are growing, the insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan are growing. You need the money to pay for those things.
You know what this is? This isn't for hardworking families. This is the Paris Hilton Tax Relief Act. That is who we take care of with this. Not Conrad Hilton, Paris Hilton. She will be in great spirits this evening when she finds out that the Republican Party has come to her assistance once again.
$2 trillion worth of tax cuts already, $800 billion more worth of tax cuts today, and friends across America, how do you square that with two wars? Seven tax cuts and two wars with no exit strategy in front of us, and they continue to cut taxes.
And the majority whip said, oh, he was cutting taxes for average Americans. We don't have time in this institution to raise the minimum wage. We don't have time for the people that clean the hotel rooms, make the beds, and shovel the streets. We don't have time for them. But, my God, today we have time for Paris Hilton. We will take care of her very well with this piece of legislation. The troops in Iraq? We will cut veterans benefits when they come home.
Let us make all kinds of changes here. But, my goodness, true to form, they are rich and they are not going to take it any more.
This Congress has bent over backwards to take care of the wealthy in America and the strong. And who do we neglect? People that do the menial jobs across this country that we depend upon every single day. Is there no end to this embarrassment of what we do on behalf of the powerful and the wealthy in America?
That is how much of the American population is going to benefit from what they do. Less than 2 percent of the American people are about to benefit from what they are going to do today.
I cannot believe the choice that this Congress is making today.
During the last 10 days, committees within the House have turned back efforts to raise the minimum wage. We won't provide any help to people who earn $5.15 per hour, $10,700 a year. At that wage, people have to work an entire 8-hour day in order to pay for a single tank of gas.
And after rejecting any relief for working poor families, what is the next order of business for the Republican Congress? Elimination of the inheritance tax--a tax that affects only the wealthiest 7,000 families in the United States.
The proposal under consideration today would cost $762 billion over its first 10 years in effect, all to benefit the tiniest share of the wealthiest and most successful members of our society--people who want for nothing, and who have enjoyed the largest share of the rest of the tax cuts that we have passed since 2001.
In this year's budget, the United States Congress cut funding for veterans. We cut funding for programs that helped the elderly and small children. We cut funding for student loans.
We have taken the step--unprecedented in our Nation's history--of conducting two wars with six large tax cuts.
And even after all of that, here we are today, contemplating a tax cut worth hundreds of billions of dollars that will go to the likes of Paris Hilton.
Three estates in every 1,000 would benefit from this tax break. This is not widespread tax relief. This is not Main Street tax relief. This is Park Avenue tax relief that Main Street has to pay for.
This bill costs almost as much as estate tax repeal, and the benefits accrue to the people in our society who need tax relief the least. We have a record deficit, we have a skyrocketing national debt, and we have two wars to pay for. This isn't fuzzy math, this is fantasy math.
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