109th Congress
109TH CONGRESS -- (Senate - July 31, 2006)
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Mr. DURBIN. I see the Senator from Nebraska, and I will not take much time, but I would ask a question of the Senator from Nevada.
The Senator from Nevada has been in the Congress as long as I have. We came together in 1982. We have seen a lot of things happen. I ask the Senator from Nevada if, in his time in serving in Congress, he has ever seen a worse special interest bill than this bill which would repeal the estate tax which affects about 2 families out of every 1,000, families who are the wealthiest in America, that the Republican leadership in the House and Senate insist we have to reduce their taxes before we can ever consider giving an increase in the minimum wage to 11 million workers who get up every morning and go to work? For 9 straight years, the Republican leadership in the White House and Congress has said to these hard-working Americans, no pay raise.
Now--now--comes the deal. The Republicans have finally said: OK, all right, our conscience has finally gotten to us--or maybe it is the fear of losing our congressional pay raise--but now we will consider the minimum wage pay raise as long as you will cut the taxes on the wealthiest people in America as part of the bargain.
Has the Senator from Nevada ever seen a worse special interest bargain in 24 years?
Mr. REID. I say to my friend, the distinguished minority whip, the time we have spent on this Senate floor dealing with estate tax, think what we could have done in energy, health care, education, the debt, but they are spending it on this massive debt increase. Hundreds of billions of dollars we will increase the debt--this year's deficit--the debt over the next 10 years. I have never seen anything like it.
Mr. DURBIN. I would like to ask the Senator from Nevada this--and he goes to the point. It is not just the basic injustice and unfairness of saying you will not give the hardest working, lowest paid Americans any increase in their hourly wage unless you give the wealthiest Americans a tax break that, frankly, only but a few of them have asked for.
I ask the Senator from Nevada, the outcome of this deal--if they pull it off--will increase the debt of America, will increase the money we have to borrow from China and Japan and Korea and Saudi Arabia, will leave a greater debt for our children so the Republican dream of reducing the estate tax for the wealthiest people in America will come true. Does the Senator from Nevada think that increasing America's debt, cutting taxes in the midst of a war, is sound evidence of fiscal conservatism?
Mr. REID. This increases the national debt by hundreds of billions of dollars. I ask my friends on the other side of the aisle, how could you let this happen? I say that. I plead: How can you let this happen?
We will try to stop it. We would like a little help. How can you let this happen? I am really troubled. I cannot understand how they would even have the audacity to bring this up: a $2.10 increase over 2 or 3 years--it is not all at once--and a massive, immediate cessation of the richest of the rich having to pay basically any taxes on their estates.
Mr. DURBIN. Last question I would like to ask the Senator----
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The time of the minority in morning business has expired.
Mr. REID. I will use my leader time.
Mr. DURBIN. I ask the Senator from Nevada to yield for one further question. I thank the Senator from Nebraska for his patience.
We have struggled long and hard over the last several months to ask the Republican leadership in the Senate to bring up the issues, the bills, the laws that people care about: reducing the cost of gasoline for working families and businesses and farmers in Nevada, Illinois, Texas, and Nebraska; working on doing something about the 46 million uninsured Americans; dealing with the issues that we face when people cannot afford to send their kids to college; dealing with the real security of America so we live up to the 9/11 Commission recommendations to make America safe.
I will ask the Senator from Nevada, in closing, as we have asked time and time and time again, to bring up the real issues that count, such as an increase in the minimum wage, is it not a fact that, instead, the Republican leadership has pushed aside the real issues, such as money for our troops, pushed aside the energy program which we need for America, and said, instead: We are going to have a parade of constitutional amendments that are extreme--many of them--and then we have to always come back to repealing the estate tax? It is a higher priority to them than anything I have mentioned.
Mr. REID. Legislative heaven, obviously, for the Republicans in this Congress is the estate tax.
Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Senator.
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