Bob Kerrey: “what happens is that in the first 5 years that this provision is in effect, Joint Tax is estimating there will be $2.6…”

“what happens is that in the first 5 years that this provision is in effect, Joint Tax is estimating there will be $2.6 billion of additional revenue coming in year 1; $3.1 billion in year 2; $3.1 billion in year 3. Americans with incomes over $100,000, who are 70.5 years of age or older, $100,000 of retirement income or more, they will be converting existing accounts into Roth IRA accounts, and paying, on average, $47,000 for the privilege of doing that. In the year 2002, we will lose $1 billion; in 2003, we will lose $1 billion; in 2004, it goes to $1.2 billion we lose; in 2005, we lose $1.4 billion; in 2006, we lose $1.5 billion; and in 2007, we lose $1.7 billion. The trend line is up. I remind my colleagues, in the year 2010, we will see the beginnings of the retirement of 77 million Americans called baby boomers. If you look at the cost, the outyear cost of our mandatory programs, you can see clearly what is going to happen. In order to fund a tax cut for Americans who have $100,000 a year of retirement income and up, because their heirs or whoever is converting and not going to pay any taxes on this income, in order to fund a growing tax cut for these individuals, we are going to be cutting programs for middle-income Americans. It is an inescapable thing that we will be facing.”