Jon Kyl: “Thank you, Mr. President. I prefer not to be raising my voice, but I cannot hear myself. Let's understand what voting…”

“Thank you, Mr. President. I prefer not to be raising my voice, but I cannot hear myself. Let's understand what voting for the Democrat ``cover'' amendment would do. First of all, when we had a $5 million exemption we were talking about last year, all of the groups came to us and said: You have to index it for inflation or pretty soon it will not mean anything. The Kyl-Thune amendment is indexed for inflation, the $5 million exempted amount. The amendment that is being proposed on the Democratic side is not indexed for inflation, and you will hear from groups such as the Farm Bureau and the NFIB and other groups that understand it has to be indexed for inflation. Secondly, you say the rate is 35 percent, but there is a surcharge for ``large'' estates. How are they defined? They are not defined. A majority of Americans, according to surveys, say rates above 35 percent are confiscatory. So the 40-percent top rate in this Democratic proposal is going to be a big problem for a lot of Americans, both those who have to pay and those who do not have to pay. Finally, with respect to the idea this is paid for, appreciate the big expenses for estate tax are after the year 2011. So it is folly to say this is paid for. Yes, you will have raised taxes by about $60 billion to ``pay'' for this for the 5 years covered by the budget, but the reality is, it is not going to be paid for in the future.”