Alcee Hastings: “Mr. Speaker, today, this body has the opportunity to send a message loud and clear to Republicans: Playing politics with…”

“Mr. Speaker, today, this body has the opportunity to send a message loud and clear to Republicans: Playing politics with Americans' lives is no longer an acceptable practice. When this body passed a $1.6 trillion tax cut that disproportionately benefitted the wealthiest of Americans, it laid the foundation for the deterioration of our strong economy which previously had been capable of coping with even the most dire of circumstances. We were wrong when we passed the tax cut then, and we are wrong today in trying to make a huge portion of it permanent. This is fiscal mismanagement of the highest order and rank politics of the lowest kind. Go ahead and call me a modern day Robin Hood, looking out for all the human needs of all Americans, or just call me fiscally responsible; but repealing the sunset for the estate tax is the next phase in the majority's efforts to provide tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of 99 percent of this country who will not benefit by this legislation. Realize, Mr. Speaker, that less than one-half of 1 percent of all estates would be helped by a repeal of the estate tax.”