Mike Levin: “Members come here with all the talk about fairness and about women and minorities, we are talking about 2 percent of the…”

“Members come here with all the talk about fairness and about women and minorities, we are talking about 2 percent of the decendents in this country, the very wealthy; that is what we are talking about. What is the problem? The substitute addresses them, family farms? Ninety-eight or 90 percent of the family farms will be taken out of an estate tax by the substitute. Small businesses? Only 1/10 of 1 percent are subject to the estate tax. Members come here raising the banner of all of these small businesses. We are talking about a small portion of them, and the vast majority of them will be taken care of by the substitute. And all of the others who are subject to the estate tax, the substitute addresses their needs faster than your bill. In a sense, those of us who are on the other side of this issue have lost the propaganda battle. Members have managed to move an estate tax to a death tax, but I have no hesitation to go back to my district and to talk about what the impact of this repeal would mean for 98 percent of my constituents, 98 percent. I will talk about Members coming here yesterday and not being able to fund Head Start, not being able to fund training; and we are going to give, 10 years from now, a $50 billion tax cut to the very wealthy in this country? I will take that battle on any time.”