Steny Hoyer: “Beware, working men and women of America. The Republicans from Washington are in town and they are here to help you.…”

“Beware, working men and women of America. The Republicans from Washington are in town and they are here to help you. Beware. Mr. Speaker, our Republican friends may think they are burying the estate tax today but they actually are burying our children under a mountain of debt. They see a problem. We Democrats see a problem. We solve a problem without burying our children under a mountain of debt. The GOP bill would create a fiscal Frankenstein that would haunt this Nation for decades to come. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates this bill will cost $162 billion. The young people of America are going to pick up that bill. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities projects that its costs will explode to more than $800 billion in the decade after that. So if you are about 15, watch out. Our Nation will run a record budget deficit of more than $400 billion this year. At the same time the Republican majority has acceded to the largest increase in the debt limit in American history, $950 billion- plus in 1 year, which was what the deficit was in its entirety in 1980. So what does the GOP propose today? Legislation that would drive us even deeper into debt. For whom? For three-tenths of 1 percent of the decedents in America. 99.7 percent of the decedents in America who owe estate tax would be exempted under our option without blowing a hole in the deficit.”