Providing for consideration of H.R. 5970, Estate Tax and Extension of tax relief act of 2006

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 5970, ESTATE TAX AND EXTENSION OF TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - July 28, 2006)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Washington for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. I yield myself 5 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, Democrats have been saying again and again and again and again the American people want and deserve a clean up-or-down vote on raising the minimum wage, and this rule does not provide for such a vote. Minimum-wage workers want and deserve a clean up-or-down vote. A clear bipartisan majority of this House wants and deserves a clean up-or-down vote, not a cynical maneuver to provide political cover for certain vulnerable Republican Members, a maneuver that the majority knows full well will kill any chance of an increase in the minimum wage this year.

Let me say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, maybe you can fool your constituents in August, but let me tell you, the American people will not be fooled in November.

What the Republican leadership is presenting is a bill that clutters up the minimum-wage vote with, surprise, surprise, tax cuts for the wealthy. Actually, it isn't a surprise at all. The Republican answer to every problem is more tax cuts for the wealthy. Medicare prescription drugs? Tax cuts for the wealthy drug companies and HMOs. An energy bill? Tax cuts for the oil and gas industry, despite their record-breaking profits. And, now, an increase in the minimum wage with estate tax cuts for the wealthiest few attached.

The Republicans believe that low-wage workers don't deserve a raise unless Paris Hilton also gets a big tax cut. No wonder the American people are so sick and tired of politics as usual in Washington.

I would ask my Republican colleagues, why is it so impossible for you to do anything good for working families? Why does it cause you such pain and anguish and hand-wringing? Why can't you just do the right thing?

Congress has not raised the minimum wage since 1997. That is 9 years. During that same period of time, Congress has raised its own salary eight times. Now, that is what I call out of touch. The congressional pay raise, just the amount of the pay raise in the last 9 years has been $30,000, almost triple what a minimum-wage worker earns in an entire year. The average corporate CEO, who will benefit of course from the estate tax cut, earns more before lunchtime than a minimum-wage worker earns all year. A Republican staffer told the Columbus Ohio Dispatcher: ``Not too many people work at minimum wage anymore. I don't think it gets you anywhere politically.''

Mr. Speaker, politics aren't the point. The point is to make sure that people who work hard every day in this country have enough money to feed their families and pay their rent and fill up their gas tanks.

Nearly 15 million Americans will benefit from a minimum-wage increase, 6.6 million directly and 8.3 million indirectly. Almost 60 percent of those workers are women, 40 percent are people of color, 35 percent of them are their family's sole wage earners. You want to talk about family values, about helping children? Just raise the minimum wage.

Even worse, Mr. Speaker, the massive estate tax cut being tacked onto this bill will actually harm those hardworking families by adding millions of dollars to the national debt. The children of today's minimum-wage worker will have to pay that debt. They will have to deal with increased interest rates; they will have to deal with China and other countries controlling the debt of this country. They will have to deal with the cuts in education and health care. It is outrageous, Mr. Speaker.

In addition, this rule makes in order a pension bill that not only misses an important opportunity to deal with this country's retirement security crisis; it also will lead to benefit cuts for millions of American workers.

And let me again clarify it for the record so there is no mistake: this is not a conference report that we are voting on here tonight. I want to make it clear, because there is some misunderstanding. This is not the result of the conference negotiations that we have this bill before us tonight.

The pension bill fails to encourage companies to keep offering traditional pensions to their workers, it fails companies from using bankruptcy to dump worker pension plans, and it fails to stop companies from awarding lavish retirement compensation packages to executives at the same time they cut workers' benefits.

I can't say it any more plainly, Mr. Speaker, the priorities of this Republican leadership are not the priorities of the American people. What the American people want and what they deserve is a clean up-or-down vote on increasing the minimum wage. We have voted on this issue in various procedural votes over and over and over and over. We want a clean vote. We want this to become the law of the land. We want to make sure that low-income wage earners get the raise that they deserve so they can get out of poverty. And what the American people also want and deserve is a pension bill that protects them. They won't be getting any of that today, Mr. Speaker, so I urge my colleagues to reject this rule.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to the previous speaker, give me a break. The Republicans know

that this is dead on arrival when it goes to the Senate. They know that there will be no increase in the minimum wage if this is the combination that goes before the United States Senate. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming here. The only reason why we are here right now is because the American people are demanding action on this issue, and they are trying to find political cover. This is beyond cynical. This is disgraceful what they are doing here on the House floor today.

Mr. Speaker I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from California, a distinguished member of the Rules Committee (Ms. Matsui).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

All we want is a clean up-or-down vote on the minimum wage. We want this to become law. We do not want to make a political statement. This is not about a press release.

Why do we have to bog the minimum wage bill down with language to benefit the heirs of the Wal-Mart family, the Mars family? Or give Paris Hilton another tax cut? Why can we not just do what is right, which is to give low-wage income earners in this country the raise that they deserve?

We are tired of the political posturing. We want action.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, people in this country are tired of politics as usual, and what is before us today is politics as usual. It is cynical and it is wrong. This is a press release. This is a political stunt. My friends on the other side of the aisle know that there will be no minimum wage increase when you tie it to tax cuts for Paris Hilton. It is just not going to happen. The Senate has already said that this is going nowhere. You know that.

To my Republican friends who have taken to the floor today to say that they support the minimum wage, to the 20 Republicans who signed a letter to their leader asking that we bring the minimum wage to the floor, let me say that it is not enough to go through the motions. If you really believe that we should have an increase in the minimum wage, which has been stuck at $5.15 for 9 years, then you need to demand action. And what we are doing today is not demanding action.

Mr. Speaker, during those 9 years since we last raised the minimum wage, this Congress has given itself eight pay raises. There is something fundamentally wrong when we can give ourselves pay raise after pay raise, but we cannot raise the minimum wage for those who are making $5.15 an hour. These families work hard. They are working every day. They are living in poverty.

Mr. Speaker, do the right thing. Let us have a clean up-or-down vote on the minimum wage. Vote against this rule.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov/