Dan Kildee: “Thank you to my friend from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) for yielding, and for his leadership. He is exactly right. What…”

“Thank you to my friend from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) for yielding, and for his leadership. He is exactly right. What this budget fails to do is address the fundamental questions that we have to address. As a new member of the Budget Committee, during the most recent budget markup, I offered an amendment. A couple of dozen of our amendments were heard and dismissed rather quickly. I offered an amendment that would deal with that question of shared sacrifice, an amendment that would have simply said that if you make more than $1 million in this country, you should pay your fair share, applying the so-called Buffett Rule that basically says, if you are doing well, you should at least pay the same rate that another member of your staff would pay. As Mr. Buffett pointed out, his secretary pays a higher rate. This would have required a 30 percent rate to apply to those folks making $1 million. What was interesting to me was what I was told by the other side, that this amendment was because people in the working middle class, people who go to work every day, are jealous of those who have done well in the United States. Let me assure you, this has nothing do with jealousy; it has everything to do with fairness.…”