On the recordMarch 22, 2013
in the spirit of what our leader said about us trying to move along, I think while we may have a variety of views, we all know we are $16.5 trillion in debt--a debt that goes up by $3 billion every night. The last thing we should do is dig this hole any deeper. This amendment is paired actually with an amendment that will be offered by the Senator from South Dakota, Mr. Thune. The Thune amendment would repeal the estate tax without the ability to offset with additional revenue. I believe the estate tax is actually a meaningful part of our Tax Code. We put in place appropriate exemptions: $5 million a person, $10 million a couple. That means the estate tax right now only applies to about 3,800 people a year. Yet, if we were to repeal the estate tax without any offset, that would add $600 billion to our debt. We have spent a lot of time over these last number of months talking about the dramatic cuts in defense from sequester--$550 billion. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
