On the recordDecember 2, 2010
A question, through the Chair: Would the Senator explain why it is that when it comes to the deficit it is more important to protect our national debt than it is to help our seniors, but it is less important to help our deficit and our debt than it is to give tax breaks to multi-multimillionaires? As I said, the 400 highest income earners the IRS has reported earning more than a third of $1 billion each on average, it would strike me that the deficit and the debt is a matter of national concern that should apply equally to millionaires--I mean multi-super-ultra-hyper-millionaires--than it is to seniors struggling to get by on Social Security. I don't understand why the deficit matters so much when it comes to depriving our seniors of a COLA adjustment, but it doesn't appear to matter at all when it comes to providing the very wealthiest Americans--people who have their own jets, have their own yachts, people who have, you know, seven homes--additional tax relief that most billionaires who have come forward in this matter say they don't want or need; that it is unpatriotic, frankly, from their perspective not to be asked to contribute more.
