Estate Tax and Extension of Tax Relief Act of 2006--Motion to Proceed

ESTATE TAX AND EXTENSION OF TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2006--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - August 03, 2006)

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this legislation is known as the trifecta. What a perfect name. What a perfect name for this legislation. Do you know what a trifecta is? It is when you go to the racetrack and you pick the horses that win, place, and show in the proper order--first, second, and third. The reason that is the right name for this bill is that a trifecta is a high-stakes gamble. That is exactly what this bill is. It is a high-stakes gamble with America's future. A trifecta is also a bet where there are many more losers than there are winners. And that is exactly what this bill is. There will be many more losers in America, if this bill is enacted, than winners.

How about the winners when it comes to the estate tax? How many Americans are affected by the estate tax? If one listened to the other side of the aisle, one would think that every person who gets up in the morning and goes to work is going to pay the estate tax to the Federal Government. Guess what. When you take a look at the chart, look for that thin red line on this big blue circle. It represents 2 estates out of every 1,000 in America. Mr. President, .2 percent of the estates in America are wealthy enough to pay anything into the estate tax. So the obvious question is, If this estate tax, which they want to repeal, means so much to so few, how did we end up making this the flagship issue for the Republicans in this Congress, the most important single issue to them to the exclusion of every other issue, the issue that returns to us on the floor with such frequency? How did they reach this point?

The New York Times wrote an article on June 7, 2006, that explained it. Do my colleagues want to know how these issues become big-time issues in Washington? They wrote that over the last decade, 18 of the wealthiest families in the country have spent more than $200 million lobbying in the Halls of Congress to repeal the estate tax. It turns out that these 18 families will be huge winners if this repeal is passed. How many families will benefit if the estate tax is repealed? Each year in America, a Nation of 300 million people: 8,200 families. You have to search long and hard to find them. These are families who are so well off, who have done so well in this great Nation, who have benefited from this democracy and the blessings of liberty, who have enjoyed a comfortable life because of their prosperity, who now have taken millions of dollars to hire the most effective lobbyists in Washington, DC to push through this outrageous special interest legislation.

Trifecta: Many more losers than winners, but the winners are those 8,200 families. That is what this is all about.

Of course, they came up with a new name tonight. It is not just the trifecta. You have to hand it to whoever sits in the bowels of the Capitol and dreams up the names for the outrageous bills they bring to the floor. Senator Reid has reminded us so many times that they had the nerve to call a bill the ``Deficit Reduction Act'' which increased the deficit. They had the nerve to call a bill the ``Healthy Forest Act'' which cut down trees. They had the nerve to name a bill the ``Clean Skies Act'' which resulted in more air pollution. And they had the nerve to call a bill part of the ``ownership society'' which privatized Social Security.

Now comes ``family prosperity.'' Oh, you just want to pull up a chair by the fireplace, relax, look at the ceiling and think: Thank God prosperity has arrived. And what does this bill do? This bill piles on the national debt. This bill adds to the outrageous debt which we have seen accumulated under this President.

Take a look at this, my friends who call yourselves fiscally conservative. When this President was elected in 2001, our entire national debt was $5.8 trillion. In 6 years of the Bush-Cheney ownership society, family prosperity, we are now up to $8.5 trillion from $5.8 trillion. This President managed in such a short period of time to increase the national debt on America by 60 percent. And look: Follow his policies out to the year 2011, 10 years after President Bush was elected, follow them out and notice that the national debt in America virtually doubles. Boy, if that isn't family prosperity, I don't know where you would turn.

Where do we look to this bill? What does it do to add to family prosperity in America? Well, American families, look at this prosperity. This bill adds $753 billion to the national debt. Oh, I tell you, you just want to curl up by the fire and thank the Republicans for coming up with this bill to make us feel so prosperous. They are prosperous in terms of creating debt for America.

I asked Senator Frist on the floor just a day or two ago a very basic question: Is there any limit to the amount of debt you would create for future generations in order to give tax breaks to the wealthiest people in America? He couldn't answer the question.

I think the answer is obvious. Senator Frist has said repeatedly he wishes we could repeal the entire estate tax, which would drive us even further and further into debt. American family prosperity. We are safe in the bosom of the Grand Old Party when all they can dream up are new ways to create debt by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest people in America.

But there is a spoonful of sugar with this bitter medicine. They are going to finally increase the minimum wage. It didn't take them long to come around to this position--only 9 years. It has been 9 years since we enacted a minimum wage of $5.15 an hour; 9 years while they resisted us for every single attempt we have made to increase the minimum wage for some of the lowest-paid, hardest-working people in America; 9 years of saying no to every single proposal to give single moms raising children enough money so they can put their kids safely in day care, so they can buy their medicine and food and have a decent home to live in; 9 years of saying no.

And what led to this death-bed conversion by the Republicans at this moment in time? Could it be the threat of the Democrats that there will be no congressional pay raise until the minimum wage is increased? That kind of gets your attention around the halls of Congress. Apparently it caught the attention of the Republicans.

Could it be the looming election where the Bush-Cheney economic policies are viewed so negatively across America, where people realize that average working families are falling farther and farther behind, that now the Republicans want to increase the minimum wage?

Well, it could be all of those things. But even in their effort to get well 100 days before the election, they blew it. They blew it. Because in seven States they wrote the minimum wage change in a way which will force a pay cut on thousands of hard-working people. The waiters and waitresses who depend on tips in seven States will get a pay cut with this so-called minimum wage increase.

It is an outrage, Mr. President. It is an outrage that we have reached this point in America where the party that used to pride itself on fiscal conservatism can add $753 billion to our national debt without flinching. They don't care to cut any spending or increase any other taxes; they are going to heap this debt on future generations. Boy, if that isn't a recipe for family prosperity, I can't imagine what would be. And then they turn around after 9 years of saying no every chance they have had to an increase in the minimum wage. Now they can go along with it. They can give 6.6 million Americans an increase in their basic minimum wage--as long as we promise that the fattest of cats in America will get a great big bowl of tax cuts, tax cuts on the estate tax. That is what it has come down to.

They have thrown other things in this bill like tax extenders, but we all know what they are about. These tax extenders are kicked around like a football every congressional session. You wait and decide which bill you put them on to try to entice people to vote for the bill because everyone agrees with them. Everyone understands that they are necessary for our economy. People of all political stripes support them.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.

Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent for 30 additional seconds.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. DURBIN. I would just like to say in closing, the American people know better. This is a high-stakes gamble with America's future. This trifecta is going to have many more American losers than winners. This is the worst special interest bill I have seen in my time in Congress.

This will not bring prosperity to America's families. This will bring deeper debt to our Nation at a time when we don't need it. This is the first President in the history of the United States to call for cutting taxes in the midst of a war, asking sacrifice from soldiers and their families and turning around to the wealthiest in America and saying: We are going to give you a tax cut. That is an outrage.

I hope my colleagues will join me in opposing this trifecta. Don't buy a ticket on this race, because it is a loser.

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