Political Quotes

“I rise to speak about the latest effort to reduce the estate tax for a small fraction of the wealthiest Americans at a cost to all Americans of more than $750 billion. This time our friends in the House of Representatives realized that the Senate would reject such a reckless policy. So rather than scaling back Paris Hilton's tax cut to a reasonable level or suggesting a fair way to pay for their tax cuts, they have done something else. They have decided to hold an increase in the minimum wage hostage to a fiscally destructive cut in the estate tax. This is cynical politics at its worst. This is government by gimmick. Combining the estate tax with a minimum wage increase and temporary tax cut extenders is not an example of finding common ground or moving to a reasonable compromise; this is an example of political coercion. And the American people are wise to it. This is simply an attempt to dare members of my party to vote against an increase in the minimum wage which has been one of our long-time priorities. But why should we have to agree to nearly $800 billion of additional Federal debt--debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay back in higher taxes down the road--in order to get a long-overdue wage increase for those struggling to make ends meet that would have no negative effect on the Federal budget?…”