Political Quotes

“I rise today to oppose the Permanent Estate Tax Relief Act of 2006. This legislation will exempt estates up to $5 million for an individual and $10 million for a couple; will tax the next $20 million in assets at 15 percent and assets above $25 million at 30 percent. According to the Joint Tax Committee, this measure will cost $279.9 billion in lost revenue between now and 2016, and at least $61 billion per year every year after. This is unacceptable and is fiscally unsound. Not only will this add to the enormous budget deficits we are now facing, but it will also contribute to the increasing concentration of the Nation's wealth among a very small number of Americans. Thirty years ago the richest one percent of our population owned less than a fifth of our wealth. According to a report by the Federal Reserve Board, that one percent now owns over a third of the Nation's wealth. Workers today are twenty four percent more productive than they were five years ago, but the median earnings of those workers have not risen in line with this, a distinct change from historical patterns. The average CEO pay is now 400 times that of a typical worker. Forty years ago it was 60 times that of an average worker. We are creating a new upper class, one that our country has not seen since the rise of the robber barons, and this legislation ensures that this gap will grow ever wider. Right now, a couple can pass on four million dollars to their children tax free.…”