Mike Levin: “in a few words, this is fiscal madness. It is a death wish on the part of some of my colleagues about fiscal…”

“in a few words, this is fiscal madness. It is a death wish on the part of some of my colleagues about fiscal responsibility. What my colleagues are burying is fiscal responsibility. The national debt is now $4.6 trillion, $6.3 if we add in Social Security funds. As mentioned, this bill would add $290 billion in debt, and who would benefit? The very, very wealthy. One-third of the estate tax is paid by the wealthiest one of one thousand Americans. I think that is one-tenth of 1 percent. Not farmers or small business people. That is the lamest argument brought to this floor in recent memory. The Pomeroy amendment would totally take care of this, and what my majority colleagues' bill does, and it is interesting, they do not come here and say so, they would increase the taxes for thousands and thousands of Americans. These citizens would have to pay capital gains tax when they do not now do so. Why do my colleagues not come here and say this is a tax increase for thousands of Americans? They do not say that. What this is also, everybody should understand, is a further raid on Social Security funds. My colleagues have come here, some of them on the majority side, talking about Social Security and how we need to address the shortfall. For some of these same colleagues, private accounts do not even touch that, and then they come here and increase the shortfall. This is true fiscal madness.…”