Death Tax Repeal Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill that would add hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit to deliver a windfall to the heirs of the wealthiest estates in the country.

Although the Republican budget holds that we must make draconian cuts to domestic programs in the name of fiscal prudence, cuts that harm the elderly, the working poor, the infirm, the middle class, the Republican leadership lauds a bill that would provide inequality in our Nation and give an average tax break of $3 million to the most secure.

In my congressional district, the median income is $48,841. The unemployment rate for African Americans is 24.5 percent. The poverty level for children is 38.3 percent, the poverty rate for the elderly is 21.4 percent, and over 63,000 households receive food stamps.

In the State of Illinois, over 13,000 children are homeless. At the end of last year, Chicago had the fifth-highest foreclosure rate in the Nation.

This bill is fiscally irresponsible and reflects misplaced priorities for our Nation. We can make improvements to the bill to address the concerns of small businesses and family farms if current law is inadequate, but wholesale repeal reflects poor leadership.

The fiscal recklessness of the Republican approach that balloons our deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars via dozens of tax cuts reminds me of the adage that says ``death by a thousand cuts,'' only this time it is debt by a thousand tax cuts. Debt by a thousand tax cuts is bad for our economy, it is bad for our citizens, and it is bad for our Nation. I will vote ``no.''

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