[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 84 (Monday, June 26, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1271]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MINIMUM WAGE AND THE ESTATE TAX

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                           HON. BRIAN HIGGINS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 26, 2006

  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, last Thursday the House Republican Majority 
defeated a Democratic effort to increase the minimum wage. The current 
federal minimum wage, $5.15 per hour, has not been increased since 
1997. Consequently, inflation has eaten away at its purchasing power to 
the point that, adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage is now the 
weakest it has been in 50 years. This is not acceptable.
  Energy prices are on the rise. The cost of college is skyrocketing. 
In Western New York, middle class families are working harder yet 
falling farther behind. The least this Congress can do is to update the 
minimum wage to a more just level, and to ensure that no American who 
works full time has to live in poverty. It should be a goal of this 
great Nation to guarantee as much. Yet last week we were denied the 
opportunity to vote on legislation to do just that. The House 
Republican Majority's vote to block an increase in the minimum wage for 
millions of Americans, stood in stark contrast to a vote cast just 
minutes afterward, to give away millions in tax cuts designated for 
only the very wealthiest Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, I support tax relief for middle class families, small 
businesses and family farmers. Unfortunately, in today's debate on the 
estate tax, Democrats, led by Mr. Pomeroy, were denied the opportunity 
to offer our substitute, which would exempt 99.7% of all estates from 
the estate tax entirely. In my state of New York only 422 estates--that 
is only one quarter of one percent of all estates in the entire state--
would pay any estate tax at all.
  The Democratic substitute would have cost far less than H.R. 5638 and 
is a superior approach in a variety of ways. It would be paid for by 
closing the gap in uncollected taxes, and would have transferred estate 
tax revenue tax receipts to shore up the Social Security trust fund. 
Yet we were denied the opportunity to vote on this Democratic 
substitute, and as a result the House passed a bill today that will do 
nothing to help the middle class and will unnecessarily drive up our 
national debt.
  The legislation the House passed last Thursday will slash taxes for 
multimillionaires while sticking our children and grandchildren with 
the bill. H.R. 5638 will cost the American people $762 billion over the 
first ten years it is in effect. This at a time when, due to the 
economic decisions of this Administration, we are running huge annual 
budget deficits and our national debt is at a record high. We are 
sinking further into debt held by foreign governments such as China and 
Japan, and future generations of Americans will be paying the interest 
on this additional $762 billion in debt for decades to come.
  Mr. Speaker, it is not often that in just one day in Congress the 
American people are able to see the economic priorities of the 
Republican Majority so clearly. Yet last Thursday a small handful of 
millionaires got off at a high price to the rest of us, and hardworking 
men and women took a huge hit.

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