Alcee Hastings: “The Democratic substitute helps people right now. The Republican bill might help people 10 years from now. The chairman…”

“The Democratic substitute helps people right now. The Republican bill might help people 10 years from now. The chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means admitted as much to the Committee on Rules Tuesday night. Mr. Speaker, we are here today because the Republicans say, well, there was a glitch in the estate tax repeal last year, some kind of a loophole. Well, guess what? The Republicans controlled the House, the Senate and the presidency, and they wrote the entire bill. The reason the estate tax is sunset was because even last year when they were projecting a $5.6 trillion surplus, they could not afford to finance the full repeal of the estate tax on the most wealthy families in America. And guess what? Now with a $300 billion deficit, the Social Security lockbox looted and no prospect except deficits for the future, they are saying, 'Oh, it was a glitch, it was a loophole, we couldn't anticipate it,' and they want to pass a bill today that will go to 3,000 families a year instead of 53 million Social Security recipients starting in the year 2010. Yes, families, those 3,000 whose estates are worth more than $6 million. There is an alternative. We have it before us, a fair, affordable and permanent alternative that would take care of every small business, family farm and family forestry operation that I know about.”