Mike Levin: “let me try to be clear what disturbs so many of us. First of all, my colleagues are making all of this permanent. There…”

“let me try to be clear what disturbs so many of us. First of all, my colleagues are making all of this permanent. There is a kind of rush to rashness, and therefore, they are really doing something that is illusionary. They are digging this fiscal hole so deep that what they have made permanent will have to become temporary. The fiscal situation simply will not, in the end, allow this. Secondly, it is so one-sided. They are making permanent the provisions that relate not only to the higher income, the predominantly higher-income people, but when it is comes to the saver credit, they do not want to do that. They say it needs further study. So for those provisions that benefit lower- and middle-income families predominantly, they want something that is temporary, something that needs further study, but when it comes to a tax break that will benefit mostly the wealthy and the very wealthy, like the estate tax, or, in this case, predominantly to those who are better off, they say they want to make it permanent. So, therefore, there is a natural question raised: Whose side are my colleagues on? That is why the issue of Enron, that is why all of these issues come up, because when it comes to breaks for the very, very wealthy, they say they are either silent or permanent. When it comes to helping the typical family, they say, well, we better study it more.”